No year without reading. At least that is my plan. I am after all still working on that lifetime goal of reading 2,000 books. That means for 20 years I need to read 50 books. Well, I am nowhere close. And even worse I have at least that number of books I want to read. So yeah, it is a dilemma. What can one do? I for one will be as organized as a mood reader can be and so I share my reading goals for 2023 with you today.
While I know I will not read all the books I put down in the following list it is a bit of guidance. And it is also interesting to see what kind of books I found to be really interesting in the beginning of the year. Sometimes later on, I realize the books I wrote down don’t intrigue me much. Definitely something to observe.
Tackling my physical TBR list
I have so many many books sitting on my shelves. It is time to read some of them and weed out a bit. Like I have some books sitting here where I know I want to read them but not keep. I am loosely inspired by prompts from the Unread Shelf Project to help me reduce the SUB. Something I came across at Stephany’s. And I am always up for another challenge within a challenge…
- ✔️Any unread book – For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten
- ✔️A book gifted to me – The Magic Library by Jostein Gaarder, a 2022 birthday gift (and also two birds with one stone as it fits my new years resolution of reading books with magic in the title)
- A book that’s been on my shelf the longest – Bilanz der Zukunft by Andre Kostolany, sitting on my shelf since April 19, 1998
- A book I most recently acquired – A room for one’s own by Virginia Woolf or Der Urschwejk und anderes aus dem alten Europa und dem neuen Rußland by Jaroslav Hašek
- A backlist title (by an author with a newer book out) – The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
- A book from a series – Amerika by Franz Kafka or maybe Deutschstunde by Siegfried Lenz
- A book voted for by my bookish friends – I will let Instagram decide
- ✔️A swapped book – Untamed by Glennon Doyle or Love in Case of Emergency by Daniela Krien -> ended up reading A history of bees by Maja Lunde
- A book given to me by my late father-in-law – My Mothers Love by Urs Widmer or The Winemaker by Noah Gordon
- A book that scares me (in content or length) – True at first light by Ernest Hemingway, a book I’v started at least three times already
- ✔️The shortest book on my shelf – Reaches of Heaven by Isaac Bashevis Singer with 95 pages
- A book from my favorite genre – A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik or The Girl in the Tower by Kathrine Arden
Miscellaneous
There are a few other books I want to read in 2023. Not specific in title but more going at a certain direction.
- One book by Mariana Leky. Maybe “Was man von hieraus sehen kann” or “Kummer aller Art”.
- ✔️One book by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I know I haven’t read one yet.
- ✔️ Three books with “magic” in the tile
- ✔️ One book about witchcraft/voodoo etc. More historic not so much esoteric
- A picture book in Spanish (now that is ambitious…)
- ✔️Ten books from my Read Around the World challenge. 10/10
And just like that my reading goal adds up to 34 books. My over all plan I put out to the universe is that I read 75 books. But I will be happy if I manage 20,000 pages no matter if the number of books is met. Are we friends on goodreads yet?
On that note: Does anyone of my readers uses story graph? I hear the stats may be better there…
Let’s hear it: What is one book you want to read in 2023?
12 comments
Love these reading goals! And I like that you aren’t too set on the number of books — things happen, and as long as we are reading and enjoying doing so, it doesn’t really matter how many books we read, right? (That said, I totally get having a numeric goal as well.)
Yes, to all of this. Do you have a reading goal?
Yes! I think I set a goal of 75 this year? And some others that I am forgetting. LOL that doesn’t bode well for success does it?
I am sure you’ll read and that is success in my book.
I just added you on Goodreads! I don’t post much there because I post all my reviews on my blog, but I’d love to read your reviews. I don’t do a reading goal so much as make sure I track all my reading. I read a lot, but I don’t want it to become a chore. I also don’t want to NOT read a long book because it will take me too long and throw me off a schedule! But I love hearing and reading about other people’s reading goals and their journeys to success!
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I am with you. I don’t want to be pressured by the number of books I read. However, I personally like a challenge so it does help me to put away my phone. But everyone should find their own way. The moment it is a chore something is wrong. It is after all a hobby – at least for most of us.
I don’t review many books on goodreads either. I do that on the blog and sometimes I take the time and copy it to goodreads. But is has been a while. It is more used for organizing and keeping books on certain lists.
Love your goals – and that bookshelf is SO pretty! A book lovers dream to be sure <3
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Thank you Elisabeth. It was a long thought process to come up with this book shelf version. I am happy.
Yay! I’m glad you’re doing the Unread Shelf Project. I really love the prompts and how different it is from other reading challenges because these are all books that I’ve BOUGHT so obviously, I want to read them!
I need to add you on Goodreads!
My plan is to read 100 books, which I’m positive I can hit. I’ve felt like my reading pace has slowed down a lot lately and I’m trying to just lean into that, rather than feeling frantic about not reading at the insane pace I used to read!
So ambitious to read a hundred books. One year I will attempt it but it’s not 2023.
Yes the unread shelf project is really interesting. I came up with a few new prompts that fitted me better. And I am only looking at my physical TBR.
I realized that my reading speed slows downs immensely when I am having a lot going on at work or in private life. My mind than can’t really focus.
OK, now I have bookshelf envy. At our old house, I had bookshelves covering a whole wall that I put into rainbow colours which I loved, but when we downsized, I had to move a lot of them along. I only have a small couple of shelves for books, but they are deep so I’ve doubled up the books so I could get rid of the boxes.
I love a reading challenge to help direct things but I fell out of doing them several years ago.
It looks like you have a good selection of books to keep you going, but plenty of flexibility
I used to have a book shelves with double rows and stacked high. I never found the book I was looking for. The rainbow shelf is fun it it makes it a bit tidier. But I am not convinced to not have the same author next too each other. I wished that publishers would design books so the actually match in size and color and typography.
If reading challenges don’t work for you it’s better not doing them. I have never finished all my goals when it come to the titles I want to read. I always find other things more interesting but it is a good possibility to look closer to the books I own.