First, let's look at my goals from last year.
Overall Goal
I kept my reading goal at 55 last year. That's just over one book a week, and I know I generally read at least that many. In 2022, I read 103 books!
My Year with Irene Kelly
I decided I wanted to reread the four Irene Kelly mysteries by Jan Burke that I had read previously, and then read the rest of the series too. And I succeeded! Well, basically. I did not read the final book because it revolved around the disturbing serial killer from an earlier book that I had absolutely loathed. In fact, I disliked that earlier book so much, I didn't even review it on my blog. I decided I just didn't need to read more about that icky character, so I stopped with book ten. But I still consider that challenge completed because I chose not to read the last book, I didn't just run out of time or oomph.
You can read my reviews for those books right here.
#TheUnreadShelfProject2022
My goal for last year was to get my unread book collection down under 500 books. I started out with 512 books, I read 65 books from my TBR shelves... and I ended up with 499 unread books. So, the good news is, I DID get down under 500 books, but the bad news is that I only barely managed that. I really need to stay away from used bookstores, heh.
The Disney Origins Book Club
I joined a year-long challenge on Instagram to read books that Disney movies have been based on. I wanted to participate in at least six months, and I managed seven, so yay! Those seven were:
- "The Snow Queen" and "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen
- The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss
- Bed-Knob and Broomstick by Mary Norton
- Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
- "Beauty and the Beast" and "Cinderella" collected by Andrew Lang
- Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers
- Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
Diverse Reading
I set myself the goal of reading at least 12 books by or about people with a different ethnicity, culture, or background from my own. And I succeeded! I reviewed most of them here, and you can read those reviews here.
A few fun stats:
103 books read, total
29 rereads
2 nonfiction
12 diverse reads
8 manga
7 read aloud to my kids
1 audiobook
Now for my 2023 reading goals!
Overall Goal
I'm keeping this at 55. It's manageable, and I get a big kick out of surpassing it.
Diverse Reading
Once again, I want to read at least 12 books by or about people who are significantly different from myself somehow.
Classics Club
I want to read at least 12 books from my fourth Classics Club list.
#TheUnreadShelfProject2023
My goal this year is to get my unread book count down to 450. This is ambitious, but I like challenges.
My Years with the Sacketts
I have spent a few years collecting up all the Louis L'Amour books about the Sackett family, and I have them all now! There are nineteen books in all, so I don't expect to read them all in 2023 -- instead, my goal is to read ten this year and nine next year. I plan to read them in chronological order, not in publication order. Or, at least, in the chronological order I found online -- I guess some people disagree about what order they go in, so I'll just do my best.
Do you set reading goals? Do you share them? If so, leave a link and I'll check them out!
I do set reading goals and this post reminded me that I have not done my post on them, sigh. LOL! I am with you, this year is already flying!! Congratulations on meeting your goals last year. I read 46 books that I owned (and probably added that many last year too!). This year I am doing the 23 in 2023, so I will at least read 23 of the ones I own, but hope to do more! I tried to keep my other challenges small so I could focus more on my own shelves.
ReplyDeleteCindy, well, nice to know I'm not alone!
DeleteI see the "23 in 2023" challenge around a lot, and it looks like a really good, manageable goal. I like it!
Your year with the Sacketts!!! Does that mean you are planning to read The Daybreakers? I FREAKING LOVE THAT BOOK--
ReplyDelete(sorry, I got excited XD I genuinely think The Daybreakers is one of L'Amour's masterpieces, though.)
Katie, it does indeed! Looks like I should get to it this summer :-)
DeleteYay!!!
DeleteI'm always fascinated by how organized you are about this! Looking forward to all the new book reviews to come!
ReplyDeleteDKoren, it's really pretty loosely organized because I am a mood reader. I can't commit to more than about one definite read a month because I will just suddenly find myself in the mood for something completely different and then either trudge my way through the "required" reading and dislike it on principle, or else refuse to read it at all. That's why so many of my personal goals have no titles attached, just "classics" and "diverse" and "from my TBR shelves," and so on.
DeleteYeah, "mood reader" is definitely something I relate to! That makes sense then to keep the categories slightly broader.
DeleteI read 103 books last year, too! Twinning.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your stats! And the peeks at your reading journal were so fun. I want to get another one of those set up for myself one of these years. I really enjoyed the one you got me a couple years ago, so I need to try to find something similar.
Olivia, high five to my reading twin!
DeleteThese are actually pages from my bullet journal that I just set up to keep track of things. I do occasionally use a dedicated "reading journal" that does a whole year or whatever, too. And I keep my reads tracked in the book and movie record that I share on IG at the end of every month, too.
You had a fun reading year. And you still did a great job on your Unread Shelf project. I got my unreads of 105, or something like that, to 79 -- only because I did a major overhaul and got rid of books I have no desire to read. I may regret it later, but too bad. I enjoy looking at your reading journals. They are straight and to the point, and fun in the process. Have a great reading year!
ReplyDeleteP.S. I'm supposed to read a Louis L'Amour book w/ my book club, and I hear it is NOT a Western.
Ruth, I did! I enjoyed so many of my reads -- they were nearly all 4 and 5 stars.
DeleteI unshelve a few books most months, slowly letting go of things as I realize I just won't ever read them. Once in a while, I'll try a book in a trilogy or something and realize I'm not into it and then just unshelve the whole trilogy.
I've gotten much better about not buying a book just because "it looks interesting" and trying to only buy books I already know something about that makes me want to read it. That's helped a lot.
I know L'Amour wrote a few books that aren't westerns. I've only read one, The Broken Gun, and that is set in the 1960s, but still in the western states. Which one are you reading?
Congratulations on all your accomplishments. I'm so impressed with your reading total in 2022, plus getting your TBR list down! I added the Irene Kelly series to my list for the future. You were right, we do have similar goals. Best wishes for your 2023 year of reading. I'll be checking in!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joel! I definitely recommend the Irene Kelly series -- especially Bloodlines, which is one of the later books, but absolutely fantastic. Even if you decide not to read the whole series, read that one.
DeleteGood luck with your 2023 reading! I hope you find many books to enjoy :-)
I like reading other people's goals - my reading tends to be more what I feel like although I do try & stretch myself. In 2022, I read quite a bit but I didn't record everything so I want to do better this year. I'm still in the middle of making some reading plans for this year, but here's a backward look at what I remembered from last year!
ReplyDeletehttps://journeydestination.org/2023/01/09/my-reading-in-2022/
'The Walking Drum' is a non-Western L'Amour book I've been intending to read for ages. My 17 yr old dd loved it & keeps telling me I should read it.
Carol, I enjoy these sorts of posts too :-) I will check out your retrospective!
DeleteI hear really good things about The Walking Drum!
I manged to read 28 which, given the type of year I had, was an accomplishment. BTW, I love your reading notebook! The pictures are so fun.
ReplyDeleteIvy Miranda, 28 is really good! I've heard that the average American reads 4 books a year, so look at how much more you've read than that!
DeleteAnd thanks :-) These are pages from my bullet journal that I really love creating and updating. I especially had fun with the page for my Sacketts reading challenge!