Category: Planning

If you’ve seen my recent posts about my series goals (see: Series tracker, 2024 goals, series plan 2024) then you will know that I have a bad habit of starting series and never finishing them. I have a plan to help me make a big dent in those in 2024, but I also know that I won’t be able to stop myself from starting some new series next year.

Here are the series that I already know I’m interested in:

The Hierarchy by James Islington (1 book currently)

Thorn Witch by Katharine J. Adams (1 book currently)

Soulfire Saga by Matthew Ward (1 book currently)

Bloodguard by Cecy Robson (1 book currently)

Blood & Tea by Hafsah Faizal (1 book currently)

The Five Crowns of Okrith by A.K. Mulford (5 books)

Cotton Malone by Steve Berry (18 books)

Elements of Cadence by Rebecca Ross (2 books)

The Kingdom of Crows by Olivia Wildenstein (4 books)

Queen’s Cove by Stephanie Archer (4 books)

Heromaker by Kendare Blake (1 book currently)

Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker (2 books)

Powerless by Lauren Roberts (2 books)

Entangled with Fae by Tessonja Odette (5 books)

Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter (2 books)

House of Devils by Kayla Edwards (3 books)

Grave Expectations by Alice Bell (2 books)

Agnes Sharp Mysteries by Leonie Swann (3 books, 2 publishing in 2024)

Stolen Beauty by Alyson Noel (3 books)

Royal Blood by Aimee Carter (2 books)

Ernest Cunningham by Benjamin Stevenson (2 books)

Caraval by Stephanie Garber (3 books)

The Bound and the Broken by Ryan Cahill (5 books)

Kindred’s Curse by Penn Cole (4 books)

The Remnant Chronicles by Mary E. Pearson (3 books)

Dance of Thieves by Mary E Pearson (2 books)

Borrow a Bookshop by Kiley Dunbar (3 books)

Salt Chasers by A.S. Thornton (2 books)

Mistlands by Katherine Quinn (1 book so far)

The Grimnir Saga by Scott Oden (3 books)

Crowns of Nyaxia by Carisa Broadbent (2 books)

The Golden Court by A.K. Mulford (1 book so far)

Eidyn by Justin Lee Anderson (2 books)

The Combat Codes by Alexander Darwin (3 books)

Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber (3 books)

I felt confident that I had set reading goals for 2023 and that I had written them down somewhere, but I have searched and searched and so far have not found them.

In setting my goals for this year, I wanted to challenge myself, but not go too crazy and I wanted some of the goals to be supportive of each other. Without further ado, here are my 10 reading goals for 2024:

1. Read a little bit everyday.
2. Finish 2 series per month. This will be the most difficult goal to complete, but I’ve got something of a plan. I’ll be tracking my progress on my Series Tracker page.
3. Get NetGalley percentage to 80%. Currently: 56%. While math is not my strong suit, I think this adds up to 20 books that I will need to review.
4. Determine an ideal physical TBR and stick to it.
5. Read at least 100 books.
6. Read more graphic novels.
7. Read more short stories.
8. Join a book club that I don’t run.
9. Make a book club kit for 1 book per month (more on this at a later date).
10. Read 15% of my physical TBR.

I have been a NetGalley user since 2015, but my recent extended book slump absolutely decimated my NetGalley ratio and I need to spend some time repairing it.

For those who aren’t familiar with the website, NetGalley is a site where publishers and authors can make e-copies of their upcoming titles available for interested readers/reviewers. The general idea is that if you are selected to receive a eARC (Advanced Reader Copy), you will post your review of the title to NetGalley and other review sites (like Goodreads, Amazon, etc.) in exchange for getting to read the title earlier than it’s publication date for free. NetGalley assigns each user a feedback ratio based on the number of eARCS they have been approved for versus how many they have actually submitted a review for. My ratio is currently at 55%. NetGalley recommends at least 80%…

This means I need to get it in gear and go read these titles and write some reviews. I genuinely feel terrible that I haven’t read or reviewed these titles yet. My slump hit right after I had attended a conference that got me really excited to read a lot of these titles, and I even started several of them. Reviewing them now won’t be of much help to the authors, but it’s a small step in the right direction. Without further ado, here are the titles that I am hoping to read and review by the end of this year.

The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton

Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro

Cooking at Home by David Chang and Priya Krishna

Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead by Elle Cosimano

The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James

Please Don’t Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson

Luminous by Mara Rutherford

Husband Auditions by Angela Ruth Strong

The Necklace by Matt Witten

The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk

A Letter to Three Witches by Elizabeth Bass

Defy the Night by Brigid Kemmerer

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

The Lost Art of Doing Nothing by Maartje Willems

The Cost of Knowing by Brittney Morris

Murder at the Lakeside Library by Holly Danvers

Crosshairs by Catherine Hernandez

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini

Smash It! by Francina Simone

Lightbringer by Claire Legrand

Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel

Hope Rides Again by Andrew Shaffer

Pride, Prejudice and Poison by Elizabeth Blake

Hello Kittens! I have no idea why I continue to try to plan by TBR in advance, since I end up changing it pretty dramatically each time, but it makes me feel better for some reason. This month’s TBR will mostly consist of ARCs that I need to get read by the publication dates. I overdid it on my Netgalley requests for this month, and that will limit how many other types of books I can pick up. I will also be participating in a TBR challenge with one of my Facebook book clubs that is designed so that I can’t plan that much in advance. I have two vacations this month, so I’m really looking forward to getting a good chunk of reading done. What does it mean when you plan the books you will bring on vacation before you start packing anything else?

Here’s what the plan looks like right now:

When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

Smash It! by Francina Simone

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

Kingsbane by Claire Legrand

Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winters (book club selection)

Total Planned books: 9