Top 5 Wednesday: 2017 Goals

We're trying something new for 2017: Top 5 Wednesday is a group of bloggers, booktubers and bookstagrammers posting on a common topic every (you guessed it) Wednesday. You can find the lists by searching #T5W or Top 5 Wednesday. And you can join the group on Goodreads if you want to participate.

We're kicking off the year with our 2017 Goals

5. Be A Better Bookstagrammer.

Not take better pictures, though that would be good too, but participate in more challenges, comment on more posts, and post regularly. I'd also like to do a better job sharing blog content to Instagram. We might even be hosting our own Bookstagram challenge in 2017, so keep an eye out.

4. Plan Ahead For Better Reading Challenge Results.

 I think I completed 2 out of the 4 reading challenges I started last year and part of my failure can be attributed to poor planning. We have an idea to make it more interesting and I'm sure I can make a spreadsheet that'll help. (We'll be talking about the 2017 Reading Challenges we're participating in for tomorrow's post.)

3. Reduce Our TBR Piles.

I'm pretty sure I make this a goal every year. I made great headway last year but it wasn't enough. My personal Mount TBR is still huge. I'm hoping to make a significant dent in it this year so Mount TBR can be demoted to TBR Hill.

2. Read Diverse Books.

This is a pretty self-explanatory goal but it's an important one. Thankfully, a lot of adult urban fantasy and paranormal romance books feature diverse casts and mythologies but I need to be better especially with the YA books I read. I made a bigger effort in 2016 to read books with POC main characters and characters with different sexualities than mine and it was amazing! Several of them ended up being my favorite books of the year. 

If you're looking for diverse books coming out in 2017, check out this list here. For diverse books released in 2016, check out this Twitter thread (Shelly always has the best diverse recs).

1. Blog Ahead.

When I first started blogging, I was so good about reading my ARCs the month before the books released and always having reviews scheduled at least a week in advance. In 2016, it all came completely off the rails! I want to get back to at least reading the books during the month they release if I can't them done ahead.

I hope that by scheduling reviews ahead and doing things like Top 5 Wednesday that can be written weeks in advance, we'll both give our readers more consistent content and manage our workload more effectively, which should make everything less stressful for all of us.

What are your 2017 Reading/Blogging Goals?