Welcome to the bookish version of my annual reflections & foresight posts! (The long, sappy, personal lifestyle version of my 2019 reflection + 2020 resolutions will be up later tonight by the time this post is published 💖).

I set some bookish goals for myself on January 1st, 2019. The question is: how’d I do? Let’s recap!

Bookish 2019 Goals Reflection

Side note: all screenshots from here on are from my Best Reads of 2018 | Bookish Year Review + 2019 Goals post!

Tsk tsk…Cierra, you should have had more faith in yourself! You didn’t just read 20 books, you nearly read 40!

I increased my reading goal twice this year from 20 to 30, and then from 30 to 35. I kept surpassing the goal! I’m not going to promise 40 in 2020, but how cool would that be?!

I thought this goal was going to be really hard, but it actually wasn’t at all! I am happy to say that I did not re-read a single book this year. That means that I explored 38 completely new worlds this year which is awesome to me.

I think this goal ended up being so easy because 2019 is the year that I got super involved in the bookish community. I started posting on my bookstagram regularly again, joined book Twitter, and started my booktube channel!

Okay, this goal I completely failed at LMAO. I read a whole 8 nonfiction books this year when the plan was to read one nonfiction for every fiction. Oops.

I’m not even going to promise this goal again for 2020. I simply love my fictional fantasies and won’t force myself to read a nonfiction book if I don’t feel like it 🤷🏿‍♀️

Mission totally accomplished with this goal. I got really serious about reviewing books in 2019, and I got even more serious about the quality of my reviews in August when I migrated. In total, I have written 25 book reviews in 2019, and that’s not bad considering the fact that there are more books that I read this year that I will still review, but simply ran out of time to do so.

2019 Highlights: Bookish Edition

2019 held three main bookish highlights for me, and I still cannot believe these all happened.

#1: I migrated my blog from Wix to WordPress!

Migrating my blog was the scariest and most rewarding decision I made this year.

If you didn’t know, Cierra’s Cynosure was born on Wix in 2015, and from 2015-August of 2019, that’s where I was based. I will always appreciate Wix for allowing me to have so much creative freedom over my blog layout and design, but my god, it’s a horrible platform for gaining a following and having meaningful interactions.

This blog began as a throwaway hobby where I didn’t care if a single soul read my words. But over the years as it became more important to me, I grew restless with feeling like I was shouting into a void.

I am so happy to say that Cierra’s Cynosure is now a whopping 140 followers strong, and I get comments and likes daily.

Finally feeling heard is such an incredible feeling.

Pssst: here is my old blog if you’d like to see what Cierra’s Cynosure was like on Wix!

2: I started my booktube channel!

• 

• 

• 

Again if you didn’t know, I’ve been doing YouTube off and on since 2012. For years, I had an animal care channel called Hamsterfanatic26, and that’s where my love for creating, editing, and uploading videos began. That channel was retired in 2015, but I always felt like I wasn’t quite done being in front of a camera.

So when I got the idea early summer to start a new YouTube channel about my bibliophile ways, I was very—unsurprisingly—stoked.

#3: I became a Penguin Teen Partner!!

• 

• 

When I say this still doesn’t feel real!! Every time I write that I am a Penguin Teen Partner I get all squeally and excited as if I’m reading the email for the first time again. It’s just a surreal feeling to not only finally be seen by my peers and fellow book bloggers/booktubers, but to also be seen by a company that you’ve admired for like, forever, too?!

CUE SCREAMING!

I’m sorry I’ll recollect myself.

Okay, I’m good. Maybe.

At the end of the day, I’m just so thrilled that these three things happened when they did and that I am where I am with my blog and channel. Seeing the numbers rise has been great, but nothing will be more special to me than interacting with the people I do and finally having a sense of belonging 💖

So that was my bookish 2019 year-in-review. Let’s shift gears to what lies ahead in 2020!

2020 Bookish Goals

1: Goodreads Challenge: 35 books.

2: Venture out of your genre comfort zone at least three times with three different books.

3: Continuation of a 2019 goal: no re-reads this year! Keep exploring.

4: Read every book you own/buy this year. In other words, don’t have a physical TBR pile by the end of 2020!

5: Earn the “10+ reviews” badge on NetGalley!

Blogging Goals

1: Continue to challenge yourself to improve your book reviews.

2: Conduct more author interviews!

3: Launch a new page for blog features and author testimonies

4: Continue to connect with more people and learn from them

Booktube Goals

1: Continue (to improve and evolve) the monthly reading journal videos!

2: Start one new series on the channel

3: Continue to conduct in-depth video reviews for books that warrant them

4: Closed caption your videos! Special shout out to Jesse for waking me up to this area of growth

And that concludes my bookish 2019 reflection and 2020 goals! Thank you to everyone who has followed/subscribed to any of my platforms this year. I’ve said this before, but it finally feels like I am talking and someone is hearing me. WordPress and the people I’ve met here have a special place in my heart 💕

How was your 2019 in bookish terms? What are your bookish 2020 goals?! Let’s chat!!