Hey besties!
How are you all? I hope everyone has been taking care and staying safe. And reading some fantastic books, obviously. I have been procrastinating, so don’t tell my supervisors. Thanks.
Today, I wanted to do a little post talking about some of the reading goals and challenges I have given myself in the new year. I think that this year is going to be the year where I don’t put pressure on myself to read read read. I want to take my time with books this year, not worrying if it takes me longer than two days to read a book or not stressing out if I only read 5 books in one month. I definitely place pressure on myself for no reason and that is completely my fault, so I’m going to try and be more mindful this year.
Which leads into one of my main reading goals: I want to focus on the more bigger books on my tbr. I don’t know about you, but I have so many chunky boi’s on my shelf that I’ve been meaning to get to for so long, but felt like I never had to the time to commit to. 2022 is the year. Some of the books that are on this unofficial tbr of big chunky books include:
Middlemarch by George Eliot. 2022 is going to be the year that I finally read this book.
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Don Quixote by Cervantes
These are the books that immediately come to mind when I think about big books on my physical tbr. I have a few Charles Dickens books that are also on my tbr for this year but the ones above are, hopefully, going to be the ones I concentrate on getting to.
Watch me read Ulysses or something by accident.
In terms of the amount of books I want to read, I have put my reading goal at the 80 book mark. I think 80 books is a pretty solid reading goal for this year, especially in connection with my desire to calm down with my reading and also focus on the books that may take longer to get through.
(I just want to insert this here: I’m editing this post and I couldn’t help but laugh at myself – are we just going to ignore the fact that I’ve already read 8 books in January? Hmm, past Allie? HMM??)
The next thing I want to do this year is something that I’ve been calling, ‘Mum’s 2022 reading challenge’, not very creative but at least it’s to the point. Essentially, mum has given me a reading challenge for this year – she is actually very serious about it and keeps reminding me about it. I’m weirdly proud? The challenge is for me to read a book that has a word in the title that begins with the letter of that month. For example, for January I read The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri, for February I will read The Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley, etc. Does that make sense? I hope so. I have already kind of organised the books I want to read for this challenge so I’ll put a screenshot down below to show you all. If any of you want to buddy read alongside me, let me know! That would be super fun.
Another reading challenge, well, I wouldn’t necessarily consider it a challenge, but I want to ensure that I let myself re-read books this year. Because I put pressure on myself, and because of the towering nature of my physical tbr, I tend to not re-read books all that much. This year, I want to change that. I want to re-read some favourites, I want to be able to relax with some of my favourite books. I just want to enjoy reading. I think some of the books I really want to re-read this year are:
Emma by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
…just to name a few. I would also like to re-read some teenage favourites of mine. That might be a cool blog series to start this year.
And lastly, classics. I haven’t officially said that I will be joining the classics community challenge for this year (is that still going ahead?) but every year, I make a list of priority classics that I would love to get to in the year. For 2022 however, I don’t really want to make a list. I have classics that I want to re-read and big chunky classics that I also want to read, so I think from those two lists, I’m pretty set for the year. But I am also planning on continuing to join in on the Dickens or Tolstoy Readalong hosted by Emmie and CarolynMarieReads. I joined for all of last year and thoroughly loved it, so I’m going to continue to do that. Therefore, I’ll be reading at least one Tolstoy or Dickens book or short story every month; as well as the fact that I’m going to be joining in on the Classics bookclub, a bookclub founded and hosted by Jennifer Brooks. So I am going to be reading quite a lot of classics this year that I don’t necessarily feel the need to write a list.
And…that’s about it! I also do want to try and finish series that I’ve started, but I feel like that’s a pretty standard goal I have every year. Let me know if you have any reading goals and challenges that you’re planning on getting to this year! I love hearing about what other people want to do!
I hope you all have a wonderful day or evening! Make sure to follow me on my socials – especially instagram since i post mini reviews more regularly over there.
Until next time, happy reading!
All the love,
allie
xx
✨ 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓵𝓲𝓫𝓻𝓪𝓻𝔂 𝓸𝓯 𝓪𝓵𝓮𝔁𝓪𝓷𝓭𝓻𝓪 ✨ 
Whoa, lotsa classics here, even though you said you haven’t joined the classics community challenge, and chonky ones too. Wishing you all the best with your reading challenges, and already I’m enjoying the latest posts you’ve written on your reading journey. Thanks for sharing!
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thank you!!! i really hope that this year is the year that i tackle those big classics on my tbr! thank you for reading and commenting! i appreciate it!
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