Saturday, December 31, 2011

Au Revoir 2011 ... Bonjour 2012!

With my second year of blogging upon us, I've decided to list my goals for the new year as I've seen other bloggers doing. 2011 has been a year of learning for me and while there will always be more and more to learn I feel confident that I know what direction I want my blog to go in. We all want to be one of the huge blogs that get hundreds and thousands of followers and page hits, and publishers are unloading ARC upon ARC on them, author interviews, guest posts and giveaways galore. At first I will say yep, I was totally jealous! Plus seeing all of these other blogs that are so perfectly laid out and have awesome setups on  their blogs - I thought that is what I had to do to get an audience. Of course I still would prefer a bit more snazzy of a layout but I also like the clean, simple one I have now. I have all of the things other bloggers have and suggest having - about me section, easy to find follow me info, ways to find me elsewhere in the internet world. I've become comfortable in being a newbie at this, and I am okay with it. I am happy with where I and my blog are, and as My Enchanted Bookshelf grows, I will as well.

One of the major problems I found myself having also is that I was starting to look at blogging as a part-time job, and having been not even a year into this I said to myself something has to change or this is going to burn me out! So I took what I enjoyed and decided to focus more on that. I love reading, numero uno on my list of I Loves, so the new year will be more reviews and continuing on with Waiting on Wednesday for upcoming books I can't wait for, and I'll be continuing with Teaser Tuesday posts as well though it might not be every week. Also staying is On My Bookshelf, my version of in my mailbox. I also enjoyed my first Media Monday post that I did a few weeks ago so I think I'll keep that around as well. One featured post I created but haven't expanded upon since my first entry, is Think Out Loud. I want to do this more regularly as well.

I've increased my 2012 Goal for books to read as well. My goal is 175 books. I hope that I am able to succeed! I am participating in the 2012 Debut Author Challenge for the first time so that should be lots of fun. I've decided to discontinue Giveaways for the time being. If I do stumble upon books that I would like to share then I may have a giveaway, but for the most part I am not in a financial position to be able to purchase books or gift cards to raffle off. I wish I was, because I'd love to share the gift of reading with everyone!!! So depending on how this year goes for both myself and for My Enchanted Bookshelf, we'll see if giveaways are something I can bring back in the near future.

With that all being said, here is my complete list of goals for 2012!

1 - Read 175 Books between January 1- December 31, 2012

2 - Do a Second Chance Challenge. This means taking a book I previously tried reading but didn't finish, but the hype is so big/good on them that I want to try again. So far this list includes:

- City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
- Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
- Halo by Alexandra Adornetto
- A Need So Beautiful by Suzanne Young

This list will get larger as I come across more books that I need to give a second try.

3 - Organize my Goodreads shelves better. I started doing this recently but I need to finally finish it up.

4 - Connect more with other bloggers. Visit more blogs, comment more, etc. 

5 - Finally figure out how to use Twitter. Let's just say I'm a "Twidiot". No clue what I'm doing, can only manage a single tweet. ha ha.

6 - Keep a better organized list of upcoming books, and have it readily available. I usually just have a word doc that I have broken down by month of what and when books are coming out. I've completely abandoned this, which won't be a huge problem if I can manage to get my Goodreads shelves in order (see #3) then that will help me out way more as well.

7 - Try different genres than are outside of my comfort zone. I've never been big in steam-punk, zombies, real sci-fi, or fantasy but I am ready and willing to try! I've been wanting to get into The Seven Kingdoms series by Kristin Cashore because I hear such amazing things about it! That will be on my list to read this year.

8 - Finally learn how to get cute little Facebook, Twitter, Email, and Goodreads icons that work correctly for me, and aren't huge or sized wrong or not in a cute little row! This will also include expanding my basic HTML knowledge. I know little things here and there, but grasping more of it will only help me in the future.

9 - Really distinguish myself as a blogger. I know that things don't come for free or without hard work. I want to continue on in the path that I've found for myself and create a page that I love and look forward to spending time beautifying and posting and hope that others will as well. I am happy with where I am now and can only foresee it getting better!

10 - This isn't completely blog related but in a way it is, so I really want to finally write a book, and at the least enter some writing contests and see what happens. I love to write, I'm as passionate at it as I am reading. I've always wanted to write and illustrate children's books, but also want to write young adult fiction, specifically about fairies. So maybe someday this year I'll have some stuff for you to read, if anyone would be interested. 

With all this being said, I wish everyone the safest and happiest of new years and I hope that all your wishes and dreams come true.


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