Tag: Reading Goals

End of Year Reading Tag

A little update on my reading as we head into the end of the year/ beginning of a new year.

The original tag and questions are from Ariel Bissett, and can be found here: https://youtu.be/UddPv6ROQXk?si=F2bVWB2F8FdskBmG
1. Are there any books you started this year that you need to finish?

Answer: Only one comes to mind, and I actually just restarted it because I couldn’t remember where I left off. The book is: The Light of All That Falls by James Islington. This is the last book in the Licanius trilogy and I want to complete it by the end of the year so that I can move on to Islington’s newer works (I just bought The Will of the Many).


2. Do you have an autumnal book to transition into the end of the year?

Answer: I don’t have one specifically, but I definitely find myself reading more magic/witchy books starting in September and continuing until December. I transition to snowy thrillers around that time.


3. Is there a new release you’re still waiting for?

Answer: I am still waiting for my Library hold for Dan Brown’s new Robert Langdon novel: The Secret of Secrets. It’s been 8 years since we got the last one, and while I have read all of the others, I don’t own any of them, so I’m playing the library waiting game. At last check, I’m currently 36th in line, so I’ll see it soon.


4. What are three books you want to read before the end of the year?

Answer: Before the end of the year I would like to read: The Night Ends With Fire by K. X. Song, The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem, and A Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir. The first two titles I learned about recently from Booktubers whose taste I share, and the last one is the continuation of a series that I was really enjoying earlier in the year.


5. What trends have you noticed in your reading this year?

Answer: I am finishing more series this year, which has been a goal for a long time. I also have been successfully participating in some online readathons (I completed Magical Readathon from G at Book Roast in September). I always say that I want to do those, but I struggle to follow through. I’m also continuing to make progress with HRCYED 2.0. I’ve completed a few sections and make steady progress each month. I think the variety of prompts has kept me from stalling out.


6. How do you feel about your reading goals? Anything you want to change, adjust, or abandon?

Answer: For once, no. I’m going to achieve a lot of what I hoped to this year.


7. Have you already started making reading plans for next year?

Answer: Not yet. I tend to wait until right around Christmas for that kind of planning. I enjoy the planning sometimes as much as the execution.

HYRCYED 2.0 and Reading Slumps

Hello there!

Long time, no type.

I’m back to reading after going through a pretty significant slump and I wanted to tell you what broke me out of it.

I was watching videos on YouTube from various BookTube creators when I came across one for the Hardest Reading Challenge You’ll Ever Do a.k.a. HYRCYED. This is actually the second year of it’s existence, hence the 2.0 in the title. I watched a creator talking about their planned TBR and then I switched over to the announcement video of the challenge’s creator, Qwordy. If you haven’t heard of this challenge then I strongly encourage you to go take a look at it: Source: YouTube https://share.google/1oDlKKCFCQgrgzELU

Something strange happened to me as I watched that video and then subsequent videos of creators who were preparing to tackle this year-long challenge: I got excited. I was inspired. I wanted to join in and do it to.

But could I? Even with doubling up (which I don’t particularly want to do) it’s more books than I have read in the past few years. And then I thought about what the consequences would be if I failed…and of course there aren’t any. There’s no harm done if I fail. In fact the challenge is designed to be so hard that most people will fail. But is there really a downside when it comes to reading more books? I think not.

So I’m going for it!

I’ve decided not to plan too much ahead. I think that will cause me to freeze or pause if something doesn’t go according to plan. I’ll make some light plans the categories where I don’t naturally read those types of books.

I started on July 7th and I’ve already read 41 books!

January Reading Plan

Each month I’m going to be prioritizing the series that I have already started. I will also be evaluating some potential new series to get started on.

The series that I am planning to  continue in January are:

Valor by John Gwynne (Faithful & Fallen #2)

Ruin by John Gwynne (Faithful & Fallen #3)

Booked on Murder by Allison Brook (Haunted Library #8)

The Stranger in the Library by Eva Gates (Lighthouse Library #11)

Christmas Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke (Hannah Swensen #23)

Chocolate Cream Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke (Hannah Swensen #24)

Coconut Layer Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke (Hannah Swensen #25)

The Girl and the Mountain by Mark Lawrence (Book of the Ice #2)

In January, I will be embarking on a new project to try new series.

Each month I will be trying the first 40 pages of the first book in series that I have not yet started. Essentially, I want to see if I am interested in the writing before I add yet another series to my TBR. I have made little index cards which each of these on them and I am drawing 3-4 randomly each month. For January I drew:

The Combat Codes by Alexander Darwin

A Gathering of Ravens by Scott Oden

The Ninth Rain by Jen Williams

If I finish all of these, I will have some stretch books each month. These are titles that I intend to read this year but which are not assigned to a particular monthly reading plan yet.

January Stretch Books:

Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall

Weyward by Emilia Hart

2024 Reading Goals Update #1: January

Hello everyone! I wanted to check in with my yearly reading goals progress as we close the first month of the year. I’m off to a promising start, but as with many resolutions, the first month tends to be the easiest.

  1. Read a little every day: 31/31 days
  2. Finish 2 series per month: Themis Files completed (technically completed end of December because I got too excited and started early). Empyrean series completed (at least caught up to current publications). I went above and beyond on this goal this month and also finished the Illuminae Files series by Jay Kristoff and Aimee Kaufman. I also closed the month by reading the newest Crescent City book from Sarah J. Maas, which gets me completely caught up with that series.(4 series completed)
  3. Get NetGalley percentage to 80%: Beginning of month: 56%. End of month: still 56%, but I have 3 reviews to write from NetGalley books I read, so we’ll get some movement on this next month.
  4. Determine an ideal physical TBR and stick to it. TBR beginning of month: 260. TBR end of month: 271 Ideal TBR: 150. This number is somewhat arbitrary, but I think it would leave my bookshelves in a more comfortable place. Books read from physical TBR: 10 (including the Themis files, technically read in December). I am going to be un-hauling Under the Whispering Door, which will take my physical TBR to 270. Significant un-hauling will need to be done to get me down to 150 by the end of the year.
  5. Read at least 100 books. Currently: 18/100. Well on track with this goal.
  6. Read more graphic novels: Read 4 this month.
  7. Read more short stories: Not a focus this month, switching to focus on this in February.
  8. Join a book club that I don’t run: I failed with this one this month. I had intended to catch the CoverswithCassidy live show for The Girl and the Mountain but missed it. I’m going to watch the replay when I have time.
  9. Make a book club kit for 1 book per month: I started work on my first book club kit for the book The Book Club Hotel by Sarah Morgan. It should be published in the next week or so and I can’t wait for people to see it.
  10. Read 15% of physical TBR: 10/271= 3%. Caveat** I added 11 books to my physical TBR this month and am un-hauling 1, which changes the number to: 10/270 but is still 3%.

Reading Tracker 11/28-12/9

I am still trying to get my reading groove back from a few years ago when I read 137 books in one year. I always want to focus on enjoying what I’m reading more so than how many books I am getting through, but there are so many books that I want to read that I really need to step up the pace a little bit next year. At the very least, I’d like to start reading every single day, even if it’s only a few pages.

I keep my physical reading tracker in a little dot grid notebook as I am reading. I track my progress and jot first impressions in there, so these initial comments may not reflect how I feel about a reading experience by the time I review the title.

11/28/23: Started reading a physical copy of Smash It! by Francina Simone. Read to page 60. The writing style is good so far, although the content has a lot of swearing and discussions of sex that aren’t the most comfortable for me to read. I feel like we’ve gotten some insight into the main character Liv, but not enough.

11/29/23: Did not read.

11/30/23: Did not read.

12/1/23: Did not read.

12/2/23: Finished Smash It! by Francina Simone. This book made me cry, but it also made me a little uncomfortable. I’ll need to sit with this one for a few days before I review it to gather my thoughts.

Started Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel. Read to page 17. Have not read enough to give initial thoughts yet.

12/3/23: Finished Darling Rose Gold at 11:15pm. What the heck did I just read? This was seriously dark and twisted, but I couldn’t put it down. After about the 75 page mark, it was just one moment after another. I liked the cat and mouse nature of this, where you had trouble telling who had the upper hand at any given moment. It was an absolutely bonkers ride of a read.

12/4/23: Began reading The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton on my break. Read to page 6.

12/5/23: Did not read.

12/6/23: Did not read.

12/7/23: Read to page 23 in The Marvellers. A little info-dumpy to begin with.

12/8/23: Began listening to All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby on audiobook while I was running errands. Listened to 56%. This is a brutal small-town crime novel that has me hooked!

12/9/23: Continued listening to All the Sinners Bleed. Got to 64%. Still totally hooked. Wish there had been more time to listen today. I am definitely procrastinating on The Marvellers to listen to this.