Murder by Death

What do I intend to accomplish in 2019?  

As little as possible.  

Will I achieve that goal?  

All indications say the outlook is not favourable.

I do have a lot to look forward to in 2019.  My mom has decreed that 2019 is the year everybody makes a BIG DEAL about her birthday, so another trip to the States is in the cards, followed by a week in Vanuatu at the end of the year.  So, travel, yay!

But, we're talking about books here and book goals for 2019.  My intention for 2019 is to have as few goals as possible.  My yearly total (200 again); a few ad hoc/group buddy reads; Halloween Bingo.  That's pretty much it.

However, I have over 450 physical books on my TBR at the moment and it is the source of two trains of thought circling my mind at the moment:  

1:  It's not as easy to 'mood choose' from 450+ books as it is from, say, 100 or so.  and

2:  I'd really like to get back to reading more books than I buy.

How to approach #1 has been preoccupying my thoughts the last few days and I'm going to try something new (for me).  I've trawled the net today for reading challenges - NOT to participate in them (see above) - but to find interesting prompts that might help me 'mood choose' my next book.  

I've printed 5 different challenge lists to keep near my TBR; when I struggle to pick a book, I can scan these prompts until one inspires me, and leads me in the right direction.  I'm also hoping this will help me get some of the older books off the bottoms of the stacks.  There's no goal to finish them, or even tick them off as I do them. 

For #2, I'm going to do what I did last year:  I will set a 'budget' for each month.  This budget is not a monetary one, but a #-of-books budget, and will be set based on the number of books I finished the previous month.  It's a 2:1 ratio: for every 2 books I read, I can buy 1 new or used book.  Budget surpluses at the end of each month roll over to the next.  For January, I'm starting with the average of all books read in 2018.

I even created a spreadsheet to keep track this year, and converted part of it to a monthly table for my summary posts.

I also bought myself a new notebook to track my purchases; the old one was starting to get tatty, and this one is fancy, with a ribbon and a pocket in the back where I save the receipts.  And a glaring Easter-cat who is super unhappy that there's a stupid book in the lap she's supposed to be sleeping in.

I also bought new, colourful, erasable pens to write in it with, because in my heart of hearts, I'm still a 12 year old brat.

What are your book goals for 2019?