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Beautiful Books That Make Perfect Gifts
Sometimes the best part of a book is the pictures.
Today I’m sharing a collection of some of my favorite beautiful books that I love to look through. I find myself pulling them from the shelves to flip through again and again.
So if you’re looking for cozy, lovely books for yourself or someone else, here is a list of some of my favorites to get you started!
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Jane Austen Gift Guide
I’m a huge fan of Jane Austen’s books, so I’ve been having so much fun looking up ideas as I was creating this Jane Austen gift guide to share with you!
Whether you’re shopping for an Austen fan, or looking for ideas to add to your own wish list, I hope you enjoy checking out these ideas and find inspiration here!
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My Reading Goals For 2020
Setting achievable goals has been a helpful tool for me to gain a sense of accomplishment despite chronic illness. It’s a healthy way to push back against the limitations imposed by my health (or lack therefore). Dysautonomia, fibromyalgia, ME/CFS and my other conditions may try to stop me, but I’m going to keep learning and pursuing my love for reading!
I really enjoyed setting reading goals for the first time last year, so I’m going to continue to challenge myself again this year. (My natural inclination would be to read a lot of fantasy, historical fiction, and young adult fiction, but I like stretching outside my favorite genres.)
I hope this inspires you to set manageable, fun goals for yourself in the new year. Happy reading!
Here are the reading goals I’m setting for myself this year.
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Tips For Setting Reading Goals & How I Met Mine
December is a great time for reflecting on the past year. The last few years, I’ve spent some time at the close of each December recording some of my favorite things from the last year, including favorite books. This year I’ve enjoyed keeping track of my favorite books in “real time” in my mini book review posts.
This was also my first year setting reading goals for myself, and I like how my goals helped challenge me as well as give me direction when choosing books. It helped prevent me from getting into reading ruts due to brain fog.
I’ve already started thinking about what reading goals I’d like to set for 2020. But first, I’m going to record how I did with my 2019 goals (read my post about setting these goals here). And, I have some tips for anyone who wants to set goals for the following year.
Here’s how I did meeting the five goals I set.
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Update on my 2019 Reading Goals
It’s (somehow!) already June, so I’m posting an update on my reading goals now that the year’s hit the halfway mark. As I blogged about earlier, this is my first year setting reading goals for myself. If you’ve set goals too, I’d love to hear about it!
I’ve been a little hit or miss on my goals so far (I’m going to blame brain fog at least in part for that. You’ll see I completely forgot about one of my goals below!) There’s still plenty of time to work on my goals over the next six months, so I’m glad I’m reviewing them now. Summer seems like the perfect time to dive right into this list and be a little more intentional about reading.
(If you haven’t set reading goals for 2019, why not set some now? Or set some for the summer?)
Here’s the progress I’ve made so far.
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My Favorite Fiction Books From 2018
I have some fun reading suggestions for you! I’ve been going through my reading journal from 2018 and picking out which fiction books I most enjoyed.
Not surprisingly, there are quite a few fairy tale retellings on here, and some YA titles I adored. I also stretched myself to read a genre I normally don’t. (Mystery!)
When I tallied my 2018 books, I felt a little bummed out that I read fewer books than last year, until I reminded myself that quality is better than quantity. I’ve gotten better at putting books aside if I’m not enjoying them, something that has been hard for me in the past. (Can anyone relate?)
I also realized that brain fog has frequently made me indecisive when I’m trying to decide what to read. Recognizing this has helped me—I thought for awhile that maybe I was losing my love of reading (gasp!) but now I know it’s just a side effect of chronic illness. I’m hoping my reading goals for this year will help me spend less time deciding what to read, and more time enjoying reading. I hope my suggestions help you too as you decide what books to dive into!
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My Reading Goals For 2019
This is my first year creating reading goals for myself, and I’m quite excited!
I keep a running list of books I want to read, but have never written goals outlining which ones to read next. I’ve merely had a general sense in my head that “I should read more of…(fill in the blank).”
Plus, my to-read list is a little intimidating at 56 pages long. Fifty-six pages. Okay, it’s a little less alarming when you know that some of the titles in the Word doc are in pretty large fonts due to copying and pasting from the Internet, and there are some book summaries included, again as a result of copying and pasting. But I want a list that’s a little more manageable for the new year. (In case you’re curious, I naturally gravitate toward fantasy, historical fiction, Christian fiction, and YA books.)
So here are my five reading goals for 2019.
