Book Goals and Resolutions for the New Year

So, last year I read a crazy amount of books!  I had a goodreads goal of 89 books, which I totally blew past, ending up with nearly 130 books read!  About a third of those are graphic novels and manga, but that's still a pretty incredible amount of novels I managed to get through.  Since I seem to have a great year of reading followed by a poor year of reading (two years ago I struggled to get anything read and the year before that blew all expectations out of the water), I'm only raising my goal slightly this year to be a total of 96 books read.  You're probably wondering why I don't just shoot for a hundred, but I actually came to the number 96 through real math (look school was good for something!).  I read about five books a month, so five times twelve is sixty, plus the approximate three graphic novels/manga I read a month (assuming I keep up that pace), which is thirty-six.  Add those two together and 96 is the answer.  I'm hoping I can actually get past that number, but I don't want to be too optimistic in case it's a hard year.

One of my major goals, beyond reading 96 books, is to read more of the books I already have and stop buying new ones when I won't get to them right away.  My shelves are all but full at this point, and maybe a quarter of them are unread.  So, my plan is to read five books I already own before buying any new ones (with some exceptions, like preorders).  This probably won't be too difficult, since the books I own are all books I want to read in the first place.  Mostly, I just need to kick bad habits to the curb.

I'm also participating in some reading challenges this year!

For the debut author challenge I plan to read about twelve debut novels.  I'm not a hundred percent sure what all of them will be, but I will for sure be getting to The Crown's Game, which is my only for sure plan at the moment.

I'm also participating in the 2016 Finishing Series Reading Challenge where the goal is to finish as many series that you've already started, or to get caught up on them in the least.  My goal is to reach level four of the challenge, which is reading 7 or more series'.  Again, I'm not 100% sure what all these series' will be, but I'm intent on finishing Kane Chronicles, The Chemical Gardens Trilogy, The Lunar Chronicles, and The Mara Dyer Series in the very least.

The final challenge I'm participating in is similar to the Finishing Series reading challenge, except this one is series' finales that are being published this year.  I plan to aim for level two of this challenge, which is 5-10 series' finales.  I have no idea what any of these books are going to be, honestly, but I'm intent on reaching the goal.

At the end of each month, when I do my wrap up, I'll include what books count for what challenge, if any.  You can also find them easily under the 2016 tab.

So, those are my goals for reading this year.  I'm excited to begin the New Year with these in mind and I think it'll help keep me motivated to finish things I've started.  Are you participating in any challenges this year?  Let me know in the comments!