2018: Challenges and plans for the year

I know, yet another new year is here!! If you know anything about me, you should have guessed this. ChristmasΒ and New Year’s Eve are my favorite celebrations ever, only topped by my own birthday. Even though technically I don’t celebrate either of them, I get excited unwarrantably. So the 2018 New Year’s Eve is not gonna be any different. Yes, I might be sitting in front of the TV or laptop (usually both) with a bowl of ice cream, but I still will be very excited nevertheless.

Well, that sounded dull and awkward.

But dear readers, wait for it. I promise you that 2018 might turn out to be the best year yet for my blog and you (because you will be reading my blog, duh). I have a plan. Yeah for the first in my blogging life I have a plan and am not gonna wing it just like that. I am definitely growing up, right? But I am not gonna reveal them right away and jinx them. You will have to wait for them.

2018 year

You know there are several crazy book bloggers out there right? Yeah the crazy kind, not me pfft! They just are not content with churning out amazing contents for their blog week after week, but also are signing up themselves for weird challenges and make themselves suffer more. I don’t understand why anyone would do this to oneself especially when their reading lists already are too long. Seriously, some people do not have self control at all.

2018 year

Speaking of self-control, I have signed up for more than a few challenges for 2018. wails I know… I know… I have no self-control and my TBR is already too long and I don’t have to time to search for books that would fit their criteria but I have signed up. Somebody should definitely stop me.

2018 year
If you are still here listening to the drama, sniffles here are the challenges I signed up for the year 2018. And I will be updating my progress once in a while, which actually translates to ‘whenever I have nothing else to blog about’.

 

2018 Goodreads Reading Challenge

This is a fairly usual challenge that most book lovers know and are already taking part. I will be setting the bar fairly low so that I won’t stress myself out in case I don’t catch up. My last year target was 35 and I reached that goal even with the longest reading slump I ever had.

So I am gonna have it set at 35 again.

A-Z reading challenge

2018 yearI met Megan in one of the book blogger groups and I knew I had to jump in right away when I saw that she was hosting the A-Z reading challenge 2018 on her blog. The goal is to read a book for each letter of the English alphabet. We have a freebie blank letter that we can swap for a letter.

You can read more about the challenge at Gingermom and Company. She promises mini-challenges, giveaways and prizes too, guys.

Bibliobibuli Book Group challenge

I will also be reading two books per month chosen by the group members. So that counts for a total of 24 books and the only promise they ask for is reviewing every book that the group read.

I am such a mood reader and I don’t generally follow any prompts or schedule when I start reading, so following these challenges might be a tad difficult for me. But I must strive on, right?

Also as I mentioned earlier I am hoping to become a bit more serious (gasp) about blogging I took up two of the year long blogging challenges. There are going to be several shorter challenges as well, more about that later.

2018 Book Blog Discussion Challenge Sign-Up

2018 yearI have been a follower of Nicole’s blog for a while now and I have taken part in her discussions post once in a while. To make it more regular, I signed up to write up to write up at least one discussion post related to books, blogging or personal every month.

Read more about the challenge here.

2018 year365 commenting challenge

As a step towards extending support to all bloggers and making new blogger friends, Nori started this challenge for 2018. I signed up to comment on 365 different blogs all through the year. Of course, I won’t be commenting a blog every day but will catch up a few once a week or so.

You can read more about the challenge here.

2018 yearI will be on the hunt to find new blogs as well, so if you are new here, leave me a comment I will visit your blog as well.

Aside, if you are interested in making new blogger friends, check my post about the Bloggers’ Comment Junction.

So tell me what are your plans for the new year – reading, blogging or even personal. Do you have any challenges set for yourself this year? Are you signing up for any of these challenges above? Let me know in the comments.

30 Comments

  1. Megan

    What a great list! I love how comprehensive you’ve made it.

    Reply
  2. Nella

    Hey there! I stumbled across your blog on a blogger tag and I really like your blog. Whew!!! That seems like a good amount of challenges. I like the 365 commenting challenge idea and the A to Z challenges. I’m checking it out right now. Hopefully I can keep up. Good luck in 2018. Oh and Check me out on: nellaverde.com I’m relatively new to the book blogging game though I don’t have a purely book-focused blog.

    Reply
    • Gayathri

      I will definitely be checking you out right away. I am excite for the 365 challenge too.

      Reply
  3. lilkadykitty

    Great list! I wish you the best of luck! I will hopefully keeping my posting schedule of Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I have decided to the Bookopoly Challenge which I have a post about on my blog! Again I wish you great luck and I can’t wait to see what you accomplish next year!

    Reply
    • Gayathri

      Bookopoly Challenge is new to me, I will definitely check it out at your blog, Kitty.

      Reply
  4. Evelina @ AvalinahsBooks

    Hey, the crazy book bloggers link doesn’t work for me! Now I’m just tortured by curiosity πŸ˜€

    I’m glad you’re going to plan out stuff on your blog! Looking forward to it. Also, very glad you are joining the discussion challenge. It’s my favorite challenge, probably πŸ™‚

    Reply
    • Gayathri

      Thanks for letting me know, I fixed it. You are one of the inspirations for the changes I am hoping to make.

      Reply
      • Evelina @ AvalinahsBooks

        I’m so glad to be an inspiration πŸ™‚ BTW, it is awesome how you put those links there to your other posts. I should learn from you! I just spent 10 minutes reading post after post, going deeper in πŸ˜€

        Reply
  5. Caroline

    I’m stressed reading all the challenges you’re participating in!!!

    I might try the A-Z just because I’m going to be reading through my backlist and that should help me pick reads. I’m also doing the Beat The Backlist challenge because… like most readers, my backlist is HUGE!

    Reply
    • Gayathri

      I am planning to combine them to read books that would cover 2 or more challenges. So I might even get away with it.

      Reply
  6. Olivia-Savannah

    Those sound like a lot of challenges! But I hope you’ll be able to do this and that you will be able to enjoy all of these challenges and the books they bring you! I especially like the sound of the commenting challenge. I try to comment a lot too!

    Reply
    • Gayathri

      This is my first time with the commenting challenge. I hope I would enjoy it.

      Reply
  7. Shelby

    Guilty as charged as one of those crazy book bloggers! Lol but I cheat and am mixing in books that I read in the past (my classic books) and occasionally tackle other book topics and not just reviews! But you’re right it’s a challenge! I hope you are successful with your 35 books challenge!! I’m setting mine at 20 this year! Being a teacher I find it hard to read during the year! This was a great read! Can’t wait to see what your blog has in store for 2018!

    Reply
    • Gayathri

      I wanna have more bookish topics than reviews this year, too. Happy New year πŸ™‚

      Reply
  8. DJ Sakata

    I will win the A to Z – I am setting my laser beams for it – but glad you are joining in too

    Reply
    • Gayathri

      I am not quite sure if I will win, cuz I have such a short attention span and I would probably forget that I signed up the challenge itself.

      Reply
  9. Megan @ Ginger Mom

    Wow! I held myself more in check this year. Only our AtoZ (so glad you are joining), Beat the Backlist (because NetGalley will stop giving me books pretty soon lol) and an audiobook challenge. I am also thrilled to be part of your Bloggers Comment Junction and the 365 Commenting one looks cool too. Oh no, self-control leaving the building πŸ™‚

    Reply
    • Gayathri

      I am glad I have a better control with regards NetGalley and the fact that I don’t live in US or UK helps too, cuz the no of books they approve is pretty dismal πŸ™ So I am covered.

      Reply
  10. stacey

    Great goals you have set yourself, and challenges too. I really should start thinking about 2018 and my blog.

    Reply
  11. Shantala

    I can so relate, my friend, I can so relate.

    I too have very little self control when it comes to books, but somehow (miraculously) I have managed to use it, and have (so far) successful stopped myself from signing up for any 2018 reading challenges, except the Goodreads one.

    Though knowing me and my obsession with goals, I might sneak them in in my quarterly goals anyway, but that is different, right? Right?

    Wishing you a wonderful reading year 2018. May you accomplish all your goals. <3

    Reply
    • Gayathri

      I love your quarterly update posts and your goals are mightier themselves than the challenges.

      Reply
  12. Mandi Schneck

    So many challenges! I really need to settle on one, and fast!

    Reply
  13. Stormi

    So many challenges! I’m taking it slow and doing my first no-good reads blog challenge this year with the AtoZ Reading Challenge.

    Reply
    • Gayathri

      Yay, you are also joininh the A – Z one!!

      Reply
  14. Gemma

    Some of these challenges sound really interesting. So far I’ll be working towards my Goodreads goal which I’m planning to set at 75 books as I reached 86 this year when my original goal was 50! Also I found out about Diversity Bingo 2017 very late this year so I’d like to give this ago too. Good luck with your challenges.
    Gemma @ http://www.gemmasbooknook.blogspot.com

    Reply
    • Gayathri

      Diversity Bingo sounds interesting too!

      Reply
  15. Raji

    I tried the A-Z challenge in 2017 and it went sideways half way through the challenge. I tried for reading two books per letter – either the title or the author’s name without redundancy in the author. I completed only 65% as per the list I made.

    Reply
  16. Jenn @ Bound to Writing

    I’ve signed up for 365 Commenting Challenge as well as your Bloggers’ Comment Junction. I hope to met a lot of great people through both of them.

    Reply
    • Gayathri

      I am excited for both of them. I am yet to make a list for 365 blogs. I guess I just have to wing it.

      Reply
  17. Libby

    Nice i am have to join some of these to do and complete my reading goal, mine was set at 150 this year and i’m almost at so i may up it a little bit this year but we shall see, i am also a mood reader..

    Reply

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Gayathri

Gayathri

Gayathri has been reviewing books since 2010. When she is not reading books or creating online content, she works as a writer and a digital marketer. Head over to meet me!