So, we are at the end of my annual year end posts. And this post has to be my favourite one to write! I love planning the year ahead and setting myself some goals.

Quite a lot of the goals I made last year demanded a lot of pre-planning which made me bored of reading. It got to one point where I knew what I was reading for the next 3 months as I had so many goals to accomplish. I prefer to be more spontaneous with my reading and be able to pick up what I want whenever, so I have amended my goals slightly this year to allow for more freedom.

How many books do I plan to read for 2020?

I plan on reading 45 book for 2020! I read 57 books last year which was amazing but quite a lot of the books I have lined up or hope to read this year are quite big books which will take more time to read. Because of this, I decided to lower my rating to a more manageable level.

2020 Sequels

This was a challenge I set myself last year after realising I had a lot of unfinished series I forgot about. This challenge basically means I must read at least one sequel of an on-going series I am currently reading. Last year since I had 12 sequels lined up, I decided to read 2 sequels a month. This is what left me feeling a bit bored as everything was planned out for 6 months. I have decided instead to read a minimum of one sequel a month from my list of on-going sequels. This won’t cover all of my on-going series but it will keep the ball rolling and at times I may read two sequels a month.

These sequels include:

1. Closed Casket – Sophie Hannah (Book 2/4 – New Hercule Poirot Mysteries)
2. Finale – Stephanie Garber (Book 3/3 – Caraval)
3. Fullmetal Alchemist Vol. 3 – Hiromu Arakawa (Book 3/9 – Fullmetal Alchemist Omnibus Edition)
4. The Great Hunt – Robert Jordan (Book 2/15 – The Wheel of Time)
5. The Hod King – Josiah Bancroft (Book 3/4 – The Books of Babel)
6. Looking Glass – Christina Henry (Book 3/3 – The Chronicles of Alice)
7. The Mystery of the Blue Train – Agatha Christie (Book 6/43 – Hercule Poirot)
8. Predator’s Gold – Phillip Reeve (Book 2/4 – Mortal Engines Quartet)
9. A Quarter Past Dead – T.P. Fielden (Book 3/4 – Miss Dimont Mystery)
10. The Sea of Monsters – Rick Riordan (Book 2/5 – Percy Jackson and the Olympians)
11. Sourcery – Terry Pratchett (Book 5/43 – Discworld)
12. Tears of the Giraffe – Alexander McCall Smith (Book 2/20 – The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency)
13. The Well of Ascension – Brandon Sanderson (Books 2/7 – Mistborn)
14. The Winter of the Witch – Katherine Arden (Book 3/3 – Winternight Trilogy)
15. The Toll – Neal Shusterman (Book 3/3 – The Arc of a Scythe)

The ONTD Reading Challenge

This is another challenge I will be repeating this year. I had so much fun with this challenge last year. I found this challenge of Goodreads and the basic premise is that each month there is a theme and you must read a book that matches that theme. That is literally it and its super fun. So below I will list the themes and the books I am looking at reading for that month.

January – Read a book that has been adapted into a movie or TV show.

• Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier (Movie)
• The Witches – Roald Dahl (Movie)
• The Invisible Man – H.G. Wells (Movie)

February – Read a book set in Nigeria or written by a Nigerian author

• My Sister, The Serial Killer – Oyinkan Braithwaite
• We Should All Be Feminists – Chimimanda Ngioze Adiche

March – Read a book about a dad, with a memorable or prominent dad character or where fatherhood is a major theme

• The Sea of Monsters – Rick Riordan
• Kings of the Wyld – Nicholas Eames
• To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

April – Read a book that caused scandal or major controversy when it was first released.

• The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Lord of the Flies – William Golding
• A Wrinkle in Time – Madeline L’Engle

May – Read a book about a cat or where a cat is an important or memorable character.

• Coraline – Neil Gaiman
• Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

June – Read a book that was published between 1946-64 or written by a boomer author.

• Sourcery – Terry Pratchett (Boomer Author)
• The Great Hunt – Robert Jordan (Boomer Author)
• The Man in the High Castle – Phillip K. Dick (Boomer Book)

July – Read a book with a plot twist.

For this task I am going to read any of the murder mysteries that are on my list. Most murder mysteries tend to have plot twists so this will be a quick and easy read.

August – Re-read a book that sparks joy for you or read a feel-good book.

• The Princess Bride – William Goldman
• The Five People You Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J.K. Rowling

September – Read a book about or with a prominent character who is a curmudgeon: a crotchety, grumpy, cantankerous character

• The Last Wish – Andrezj Sapkowski (Geralt of Rivia)
• Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen (Mr Darcy)
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes)

October – Read a book with death as a theme or where a death (or more) is an important part of the narrative.

This is another task where I will just read any murder mystery that is on my list to read. Death is a huge part of a MURDER mystery obviously. Hahaha!

November – Read a book with flashbacks.

I have no clue what I will be reading at this moment in time.

December – Read a Book That Won an Award in 2020

Like last year, I will wait until closer to the month to decide what I will be reading as nothing has been announced at the moment.

Second Chance Challenge

So this is a new challenge that I have created for myself. I have a couple of books that I DNFd but keep on being drawn to read again. These books are books that I read just as I was getting back into reading, books that I think I would love now because I have now read a variety of book genres and styles. So, I have decided to give this a go and see how my feelings have changed over the past couple of years. The books I have decided to give a second chance are:

• The Lies of Locke Lamora – Scott Lynch
• Stardust – Neil Gaiman
• The Princess Bride – William Goldman
• The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm – Brother Grimm
• The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Physical TBR

Like most people it seems at the moment, I want to cut down on my physical TBR. I have been very lucky to be able to own a bunch of unread books but I really want to shift my focus to what I own already rather than being focussed on what I see at a bookshop. I really need to start prioritising as I have a big pile of books just stacked ominously in my room! Calling out to me!

Any genres you plan to read more of?

I want to continue,like last year, to read more classics. I really enjoyed most of the classics I read last year so I want to keep that ball rolling.

So there you have it! The final post for my year end series! We finally move onto new things, new wrap-ups, new reviews and new discussions.

One final thing. Thank you. Thank you, for reading everything I create whether you joined January of 2019 or have only just joined as 2019 left and 2020 began! Thank you so much, your support means a lot 🙂