Goodreads Spring Cleaning Challenge – My 10 #Goodreadance2021 Goals

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It’s my favourite time of the year: #Goodreadance time! The Goodreads Spring Cleaning Challenge (otherwise known as #Goodreadance2021) is a challenge started by Shealea from Shut Up, Shealea. It invites readers to spring clean our Goodreads shelves and otherwise get our readerly lives in order. You can check out the announcement post with more info here:

My Goals for #Goodreadance2021

Last year, I participated and revamped the entire way I used Goodreads! I wrote about it in this post, if you’d like to read it. Initially, I also wanted to organise and get an overview of all my owned books but that didn’t end up happening because I didn’t have enough time last September. This year, #Goodreadance2021 runs from September to November and I have some goals and a game plan for how I plan to tackle my messy reading life. They include both goals specific to Goodreads but also some goals for the rest of my reading and tracking!

Goodreads Goals

I’m not going to lie, I didn’t keep up with my Goodreads as much as I wanted. I added some shelves I barely use, my “to read” list has exploded and everything is a mess. For reference, when I completed the Goodreads Spring Cleaning Challenge last year, my Goodreads looked like this:

Look how clean and simple! I managed to just have 6 shelves for categories that were important to me. Now, my Goodreads looks like this:

Yikes. This isn’t a useable system for me, it’s chaotic and kind of makes my head hurt. What are these shelves for? And do I really want to read 614 books? Do I even know what’s on those shelves?!

1. Remove Books From “to read” Shelf

Time to whittle down that “to read” shelf a little. I don’t have a specific goal number in mind here because it’s mostly a way for me to bookmark books I’m interested in. It’s my “I want to buy a book or find something to read, let me just scroll through this real quick” list and I’m cool with that. Last year, I proudly announced I’d go through that list every month and reevaluate. Did I do that? Fuck no. Time to try again. Over the course of this challenge, I’ll remove all the books I’m no longer interested in. I’ll also schedule an hour at the end of each month to check in with it. Maybe I’ll even post about in on Twitter or Instagram for some accountability!

2. Rethink and Reorganise My Goodreads Shelves

My shelf system is no longer serving me so it has to change. There’s no need in lugging around shelves I barely use or ones that aren’t up to date.

I already know I’ll get rid of my “owned TBR” shelves for all formats since I now keep track of that in Notion. Additionally, I will also probably dump my “the library has this book” shelf. It was nice while it lasted, but since I now have access to an English library and the ability to have a wishlist in the app, I don’t need that shelf. Finally, I want to update my anticipated reads shelves! They’re not even close to containing everything I have on my radar.

General Reading Organisation Goals

The biggest part of my goals for the Goodreads Spring Cleaning Challenge tackles the non-Goodreads part of my reading. Buckle up because I have a lot of chaos to organise, this is a deep clean of my reading life!

3. Unhaul Books

My shelves are bursting and unless I find other spots in my room for books, some books will have to go. I already started this process, giving some books away to friends and putting other ones in a free little library in my area. But I know that there are more books that can go, especially once I’ve actually read them. I should probably put “read the books you own, dumbass” as a goal too, but it’s heavily implied.

4. Reorganise My Bookshelves

When there is space on the shelves, I can finally reorganise! Right now, my shelves look like this:

I’m honestly a little embarrassed by how bad it has gotten. I can’t even see all of the books I own right now. The only section that has a vague organisation is my death book collection (lower right shelf). And even that’s a lie because it doesn’t even hold all the death books I own right now! So it’s time to clear out and reorganise because oh boi do these shelves need it!

5. Update Owned Books Notion Page

Sometime last year (it was probably either during lockdown boredom or a procrastination induced frenzy) I made a list of all my owned books. I use Notion for it because I love it and tagging books and subsequently finding them was super easy! It’s not a pretty system, but it works…if you update it regularly.

The last time I updated this spreadsheet was in April. Did I stop buying books since then? Hell no! I am, unfortunately, a frequent ebook sale buyer which is terrible for my TBR. So I also have to let you know that that wonderful 319 is definitely no longer an accurate representation of my unread books across formats.

Additionally, my tagging is severely lacking. In my whole database, there’s maybe 10 books with a release date and not many more with accurate on-page representation tagged. So I’ll probably ditch those tags! It’s clear that I don’t utilise them and the thought of going through every single book to update the database makes my brain melt. I’ll do some reflecting on which information this specific database needs to contain to be useful and ditch everything else.

6. Go through Library Wishlist

Thanks to a wonderful member of Leena Norm’s Gumption Club, I now have access to a lovely library in Wales through BorrowBox. That app has a wishlist feature and as expected, mine is overflowing. So similar to my Goodreads, I’ll go through and remove everything I am no longer interested in reading. Sounds like a great activity to do while watching a TV show and probably won’t take very long, yay!

7. Update Reading Spreadsheet

At the beginning of the year, I started using Word Wonder’s Reading Spreadsheet… and kept up with it for a whole month lmao. You might be able to tell that I suck at sticking to systems. However, I really want to set aside a few hours to update this wonderful spreadsheet with all the books I’ve read. It includes a bunch of pages I don’t utilize (like ARCs, hauled books and a series tracker). But what I love is all the stats it can give you! One of my 2021 Bookish Goals was to get more data on my reading so I can see where I have gaps in terms of genres, voices and representation. And Fadwa’s spreadsheet allows me to easily track all of that! So I’ll bite the bullet and update the past 8 months of reading.

8. Update or Ditch Reading Journal

A friend gifted me a handmade reading journal a while ago and I loved using it! My set-up is ridiculously simple, I just have a page for yearly stats and then a table for each month for titles and ratings. But as you might be able to guess, I haven’t kept up with that journal either. So one of my #Goodreadance2021 Goals is to decide if I want to continue using it or abandon it for the foreseeable future.

9. Update TheStorygraph

I love TheStorygraph. But I find myself not using it as much as I’d like to. Subsequently, my stats aren’t up to date or accurate at the moment! So sometime during this challenge, I’d like to go through, update the books I’ve read and add ratings and reviews so I can get those pretty graphs!

10. Reach 80% on NetGalley

Oh, the ever-elusive 80% review ratio on NetGalley. One day I’ll get there. Preferably, within the next months. I don’t even need to read and review that many books to reach it! I currently sit at a lovely 60% with 18 reviewed books out of 30 approved ones. Some quick math tells me that I need to read and review 6 more books to hit 80%! That’s absolutely doable until November, as long as my mood reader brain doesn’t get the better of me.

And those are my 10 possibly overambitious goals for the Goodreads Spring Cleaning Challenge! Are you participating in #Goodreadance2021? What goals and plans do you have?

I hope you have a lovely day,