What to Expect in 2015

I have been feeling very reflective lately. Not just the general stuff, but, as I head into a new phase of my life, I have been thinking lots about what comes next and what things I may want to change or goals I want to make. Some of this, of course, has bled over into my thinking about Read.Write. Repeat.

If you read the posts last week, you know they were all about the past, about 2014. Best books of the year, the December Chapter post, and an overview of 2014 as a whole. Today, though, I'm excited to be looking to the future. What is 2015 going to hold? 

Before I jump into that, I wanted to take a minute and reflect on my 2014 goals and expectations for Read.Write. Repeat. Taking those into consideration affects what my goals and expectations will be for this next year, after all.

2014 Goals and Expectations

• Less Book Reviews - Well, this didn't happen. And I'm glad! I read more this year than ever before, despite my crazy schedule!
• Increase Quality - I definitely feel as though I did this. Not everything I read was great. But I read some incredible books, including several Pulitzer winners. 
• Movie Monday Continues - This happened sporadically at best this year, but it's back on track now. Being at home during the day has given me more time to watch movies that Kevin wouldn't enjoy.
• More Reader Involvement - I don't really feel like this happened, but I still want it to!
• Increased Readership - While I had bigger numbers this year, I don't necessarily feel like they were quality hits. Like I said in the previous point, I want to grow reader involvement!
• More Book Tours - Done. Still doing these. Still enjoying them.
• Organize a Group Reading Program - Fail. Total fail. Maybe this year?
• Everything About Books! - Success! Everything is still about books.

With that in mind, let's talk about this upcoming year. Here are some goals I have for this year on the blog and some things you can expect to see happening! I'm trying to avoid specific number based challenges. I want to enjoy things for what they are and try to measure success outside of a numerical format. Call it burnout prevention if you want; I just want to keep loving this and not fall into the trap I've seen other book bloggers hit.

2015 Goals and Expectations

• 100 Best Novels - I just passed the 1/3 mark on this challenge. In 2015, I would love to hit the 2/3 mark. I don't know if that's an attainable goal, but I want to try! Any requests as to which books I should hit next?
• More Reader Involvement - I still really want to work on this. I want to hear more from you and make this a more active community! What ideas do you have about this? What types of things would you want to be involved in? What are your favorite types of posts? Other bloggers: how did you increase this aspect for your blog? I want to know all the things!
• Increase Social Media Presence - Already working on this by starting a Twitter in December. This is kind of a sub-goal for the "More Reader Involvement" one. 
• More Re-Reads - I haven't re-read a single book since I started this blog in 2012. I mean, I've reread books from many years ago, but nothing recent. I've been unsure how to approach them since I've already posted about them. However, I have a major itch to dive back into some of my recent favorites. I'm concocting some ideas for how to present these in a new, fresh way. 
• Connect More with Book Blogger Community - I've started doing this a little more, including participating in the #TBTBSecretSanta gift exchange (which I loved!), but I want to really grow in this area. There is a truly amazing book blogger community out there and I want to be more involved in it!
• Join A Challenge (or Two) - Speaking of connecting, I want to join some other blogging challenges this year. I'm thinking I'll start with the 2015 TBR Pile Challenge hosted by Roof Beam Reader. More on that tomorrow...
• New Blog Design - This is something I've wanted for a while, I just don't have the skills to do it. Any web designers out there (amateur or pro!) interested in helping me make the blog pretty and not so Blogger template-ish? I would love you forever! I don't really have a big budget for this right now, but I would want to compensate you somehow, even if it wasn't financially (cookies/books/friendship bracelets).
• New Post Format - I have been giving a lot of thought lately to my standard post format. I don't really have a go-to format for reviews and I would like to work on that so as to improve readability. What would you like to see broken out in the book reviews? A rating system? More author info? A summary included? Let me know your thoughts!

So, that's what I'm thinking. As you can see, so many of my hopes for 2015 revolve around you and increasing the Read.Write.Repeat family. Not necessarily in page view counts or number of books read. Those are fun, but I'm far more interested in creating meaningful conversation about these books! I want to hear from you about all of this!

What are your 2015 goals?