This year I’m taking a more laid-back approach. I love participating in certain challenges, enjoy doing book tags/memes, I enjoy reading seasonally, and I love reading my way around the world. But… yes but…. I almost never pick up a book and actually read it today. Almost all of my reading happens with audio books. I’d like to try to get back some of my joy of reading books to myself. It will be hard, but I’m going to try. In 2022 I read too few books to mention–I listened to nearly all.
That said, here are some of my reading “ideas” for this year:
- No more e-books from Net Galley. Only Audios. I never get the e-books read.
- Continue the effort made last year to mine my Kindle & shelves for books to read.
- Seasonal reading is pleasant, so I’ll do some of that still.
- Classics Club Spins–I’ll enjoy what other have read and reviewed.
- Keeping Simon at Stuck in a Book’s Year Club Challenges
- Japanese Lit, Welsh Lit, Irish Lit, & Spanish Lit Challenges are still a yes, IF I find a book I really want to read.
- Novellas in November and Nonfiction November both stay.
- Continue to read Dean Street Press Furrowed Middlebrow books & Persephone books
- In spite of not being sure the first year, I definitely want to read Christmas books after Thanksgiving. That surprised me, but I’ve had so much fun with them on my commute.
- Be open to new challenges. Be open to ignoring bestsellers. Look for a few of the hard-to-find books on my TBR if they can be had very cheap. My book budget is now minuscule so I want to spend it very wisely.
Those are my ideas. Not “plans.” Not “goals.” Just ideas on what I’ll do this year.
What about you? Do you make reading goals or plans or [whatever you choose to call them]? If so, leave me a comment or a link to your own post(s)–I’d love to hear what you will be doing, or considering doing, this reading year.
Hopewell's Public Library of Life 
I don’t really make goals or plans other than wanting to get to a certain number each year. Normally, it’s 100 books, but this year I’m trying for 120! I hope you manage to make some of these goals or ideas happen!
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You, too! Thanks for reading here.
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Good luck with all these. The one thing I’m trying to do this year is to join challenges with my TBR books rather than adding more to it. And keeping my netgalley and Edelweiss piles under control.
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My TBR is longer than the life I have left at age 60 lol NetGalley–I use the “I won’t be giving feedback” when I don’t like the book unless something needs to be said like historical inaccuracies
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If you enter “I won’t give feedback” does that affect your profile ratio? There are a few books I requested way back when I started blogging and discovered netgalley. I’m just never going to get around to reading them
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Honestly, I don’t know and don’t care. If it’s a book that isn’t doing it for me I just toss it! lol. They keep awarding them to me! I must say I need to pull up my socks on a few of the last non-audios and finish them, though. One is nearly done–just finish it! lol My brain says, “maybe”
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I definitely agree about reading Christmas books after December. I read some lovely ones this year.
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Did you review them? I’ll check out your reviews for next year!
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One of the best things about an emptying nest, for me, is more reading time. I really don’t get into a lot of challenges, goals, etc — I just like to read whatever I feel like once I finish a book. I guess one thing I’ve learned recently is that I really prefer classics and books that weren’t written in the past 10 years or so. Happy reading to you in ’23!
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I used to think I wouldn’t enjoy Challenges until I tried one. You pick what you read. It is fun!
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Wishing you a very satisfying 2023 reading year! 🥂
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I know you a bit and these ideas sound lovely and achievable.
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All fabulous ideas. I try not to make resolutions, but I do try to at least understand my reading intentions for the year. I’m making a serious effort to cut back on NetGalley — not quite there yet, but I’m in better shape than I was last year!
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I choose to call them ‘prompts’ rather than targets, goals or challenges as if they’re not met or are incomplete within a timeframe I somehow feel a failure even though I don’t need to! So, “go with the flow and enjoy the ride” is my advice. 🙂
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I’m reposting this for Top Ten Tuesday–should have checked the topic!
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Like the “ideas” not “plans/goals” approach. I’m still trying to resolve my dilemma of enjoying challenges and reading events but not enjoying feeling pressured to read a certain book by a certain date
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That’s a lot of it, isn’t it? Once you “assign” it to a challenge it becomes school homework–ugh!
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It’s so hard to ignore bestsellers! The thing that stops me most is when I am faced with buying them at full price. Sometimes I get lucky and obtain the arc but usually I’m on a long library wait list.
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I can appreciate thinking about these as plans rather than goals. My goals are more like ideas or areas to focus on rather than specific goals. I read about half audio, and half e-books, but to me both are equally valid ways to read, so I’m interested in your concern about reading versus listening to books. I do need to read more of the books I own, I’m really bad about buying paper copies and not reading them. I love Nonfiction November and plan to participate in that again. Good luck with your reading in 2023!
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I’m concerned more about my ability to focus–attention span. I need to improve it.
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I hope you find that in 2023! I can see where it’s easier to get distracted with audiobooks than with print books.
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These are all great reading ideas, Lisa. I like that they are things you want to try, but not necessarily goals that you must stick to. I hope you enjoy what and when you read in 2023.
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