The NetGalley Team’s 2020 Reading Resolutions

The NetGalley Team is celebrating the start of the new year in a pretty predictable fashion: We’re making bookish resolutions! Most bookworms set reading goals for the year (and you better believe we’re doing that too!), but the resolutions below focus more on our reading habits, the genres we want to read, and some #NetGalleyGoals to keep our profiles looking sharp. Take a look below to see if you share a resolution with any of our team members.


Kelly

Work on my NetGalley feedback ratio…
I can’t be alone in this. Like the weather, my feedback ratio has a habit of changing with the seasons. Sometimes I’m reading and reviewing consistently, but occasional slumps can create periods where my TBR list grows and my ratio dips. In 2020, I want consistency. Here’s to getting back to 80% and keeping it there!

Make time for Bookstagram
I started a Bookstagram in 2019! It’s been a lot of fun to connect with the book community on Instagram, and to have another place to casually share the books I’m currently reading. But it’s also a ton of work. In 2020, I’m hoping to get even more organized and create a Bookstagram schedule that can help me set goals for how often I’m posting, the kind books I’m talking about, and more!

Dana

Step out of my reading comfort zone
In 2019, I read a lot of romance novels and young adult books. These are the two genres that I typically gravitate toward, but through our team book club I read a memoir and an adult historical fantasy novel that I probably never would have picked up. Those two books really surprised me and made me think in a way that books that I pick up because I know I will enjoy them don’t.

Read 100 pages a day
I’m a firm believer in the importance of daily habits and love checking something off my to-do list in the morning. A habit that I started in 2019 was trying to read 100 pages of a book every single day. I have to be completely honest in stating that this doesn’t happen every day. Still, I like trying to achieve it. Reading 100 pages may seem like a lot, but when you’re very engrossed in a book, it’s quite achievable and it helps me get through the books on my TBR much faster. 

Nina

Listen to more audiobooks
With full audiobooks coming to NetGalley later on this year, I want this to be the year that I delve more deeply into the format. I’m a podcast listener and have already dabbled a bit in audiobooks. I’ve enjoyed memoirs like Kitchen Confidential and My Life as a Goddess. Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon is a perfect fit for audio. But I still don’t really know what kind of audiobook listener I am. Do I only like nonfiction? Do I like single narrators or full casts? Will audiobooks finally get me into science fiction?! This time next year, thanks to my beloved NYPL’s audio capacity (and soon, NetGalley’s!) I’ll know. 

Amanda

Re-read more books
In 2020 I want to re-read more books. I almost never do, I’m always so excited about new releases, but this year, I want to take time to enjoy some of my all-time favorite reads again.

 

Tarah

Read more mythology
This year I want to revisit my love of mythology and folklore. I read Madeline Miller‘s Song of Achilles and Circe in 2019 and both tales were so consuming that the experience made me remember how the world would fall away when I was reading myths. So I’d like to revisit stories I read as a child and in college, and then venture on to those I haven’t yet discovered. 

Find time to talk about books
Reading books is so important, for many reasons, and this year I want to talk about what I’m reading more. I want to have book club meetings more frequently, attend more of my local bookstores’ events, and make more of an effort to chat with friends, family, and coworkers about what I’ve read and loved (and maybe didn’t love…). 

 

Mary

Start a new book two days after finishing one
My reading resolution is to always have a new book started within two days of finishing the last one.  I find I often finish one book and then have a long delay before committing to a new one. I’m always happier when I am mid-book–so my goal is to decrease the time in between books.  

 

What are your 2020 reading resolutions? Let us know using our #NetGalleyGoals template!

5 Comments
  1. I love your ideas. Reading 100 pages a day is a must try for me. Currently I read about 30 minutes a day, but upping my time to 45 minutes to reach approximately 100 pages. Thank you.

  2. I relate to Nina wanting to listen to more audiobooks. Sometimes it’s hard to find time or place to sit down and actually read books in long chunks, but there is always some “deadtime”, when riding, driving, walking or exercising, doing rote tasks… etc. and these are perfect to fill with great books in audio format. I have discovered that today’s professional narrators can really enhance [or, occasionally, alas, distract] one’s listening experience. This past year I tried to get out of my comfort zone [I love mysteries and detectives] and listen to more non-fiction and memoirs. Michele Obama’s terrific memoir inspired me to listen to other interesting people. I just finished Bill Brysons book, The Body, which he narrated and was fascinated. His wry asides added a lot to the pleasure of learning.

  3. Net Galley is so wonderful that I feel like a child let loose in a candy store. In 2020 I want to not have so many books on my shelf that I cant review them all. I plan on adding to my profile and reading at least two biographies and more mysteries.. I have never belonged to a book club hmmmm.

  4. I have a tendency to read only mystery/thrillers. This year I’m going to broaden my list with different genres.

  5. I am so inundated with author requests that I have gotten away from reading what appeals to me. So my main resolution is to be choosier in the author requests I accept. This is followed by reviewing more on Netgalley to raise my percentage.

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