MY 2020 READING GOALS.

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Hey readers, I hope y’all got through January in one piece and are enjoying the sunshine and love that comes with the month of February. I was hoping to be more consistent with writing every week but it ain’t as easy as I thought. I am hoping to eventually get there though.

I was meant to put out this post in January but hey, better late than never, no? Some of us started our year in February seeing as Jan was just a free trial lol. It is a norm for one to have a list of goals that one hopes to accomplish by the end of the year and one of my consistent goals has always been to read more. For some people, it is the number of books while others have genre goals. I have reading goals that cater for both.

                                       Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

Some of my 2020 reading goals have been brought forward from last year while some are new.

1. Clear my book stand- I read somewhere that “I have come to the conclusion that buying books and reading them are two different hobbies” and you know what, I came to the same conclusion. In just a month, I have bought 7 books, of which I have only read 2 lol. The fact that TBC Sarit had a book sale in Jan and TBC Junction mall has an ongoing sale until 31^st March 2020 did not help.

I genuinely have over fifteen books on my book stand that I am yet to read. I have this thing where I cannot seem to walk out of a bookshop without a book. Why do I find myself in one in the first place? Because bookstores make me happy. This is a goal that has been carried forward from last year and I am hoping this year I will at least get halfway in as much as I do not intend to stop buying books.

2. Kenya Literature- I am not proud to say that the only book by Ngugi wa Thiong’o that I have read is The River Between, and that was course it was one of the high school set-books that I read (yes, we can guess my age). This year I purpose to do better and one of the books that I am reading this month is A Grain of Wheat. I will try and make sure that every month I read a book by a Kenyan author.

3. Read Poetry- The first time and only time I ever read poetry for leisure was in the bookclub's book of the month. I am genuinely not a big fan of poetry books but I am a big fan of listening to poetry and spoken word. One of the books shared by a friend is one of Rupi Kaur’s book, The Sun and Her Flowers, which I can already tell it will take me close to a year to finish lol but I will finish it. 

4. Classics and Victorian Literature- If I am being honest with myself and you guys, I will rarely go to the classic’s aisle of a bookstore and the only time that has happened was when it was the book of the month for book-club. I think I have paid a fine for not finishing most of the classic reads that we have chosen to read. This year though I want to challenge myself to read more classics than I generally would read. 

5.      My last reading goal for 2020 is to read short stories. I genuinely shy away from short stories coz I feel as though they leave one hanging. I have a love and hate relationship with Chimamanda’s Half A Yellow Sun coz every time I got invested in a character, I was left hanging. The only other short story that I have read (assuming Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is not one lol) is This is how you lose her by Junot Diaz. 

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I am hoping to be disciplined enough to achieve these reading goals this year. I am also hoping that I can do book reviews this year too. Another reading goal that I have for the year is to read a minimum of fifty books. 

What are your reading goals for the year and what reading challenges do you hope to participate in this year?