a 2023 bookish reflection on reading, reading habits, and ins and outs for 2024.

Hi friends!

Happy new year!!! I hope the start of 2024 has been wonderful for you and your reading.

I wanted my first post of the year to be a reflection on my 2023 reading goals, just to see how 2023 went in terms of my reading habits and the books that I read.

I won’t ramble too much, so let’s begin!

Reading with intention

I believe I did achieve this with my reading in 2023. When I consider this goal of reading with intention, I think of slowing down and not being in competition with myself to read heaps of books. In 2023 I read 120 books, which is still quite a lot but in comparison with myself from 2022, a significant decrease as i read 157 books in 2022. I definitely felt my reading was slower. I didn’t necessarily feel like i had to read on a deadline or read as much as I can. I was busy last year with my thesis and teaching, and i really worked on being kind to myself if i didn’t feel like reading or if i wanted to read fanfiction instead. I honestly think this characterised my reading in 2023, so I am quite happy with myself!

Reading my actual physical tbr

I need to actually look at the books i read last year to tally up how much, out of the 120 books that i read, which ones came from my tbr. I will also look to see how many books that i read came onto my physical tbr in 2023, in comparison with previous years. Essentially, was I reading more backlist books from my tbr or ones that I either purchased, or was given, in 2023. Let’s see, shall we?

In 2023, I read:

38 books that i either purchased or was gifted in 2023.
25 books that came onto my tbr in 2022
8 books that came onto my tbr in 2021
8 books that came onto my tbr in 2020
1 book from 2019
1 book that’s been on my tbr before 2018
23 books from the library
10 books from scribd
6 books that i borrowed from friends

I love that i used my library quite a lot in 2023, but i am quite unsatisfied with these stats. I mostly read books that I got in 2023, instead of focusing on the other books that have been languishing on my shelf for years. Although I am happy that my next highest category of books read came onto my tbr in 2022, my focus needs to shift overall in my reading. I want to read more books from my tbr that have been there for at least a year. That will most likely translate as a new reading goal for 2024.

Not hauling books as much/book buying ban.

In my defense, i did stick to this for a bit. But then I needed happiness in the stress and chaos of last year…so I broke. I cannot believe that I hauled at least 38 books…that number must be closer to 50, i think, because there are books that i purchased and was given (Especially in the later months of 2023). I…have no words.

Read at least 12 non-fiction books.

According to Storygraph, I read 5 non-fiction books. But it included a poetry book so that number is actually 4. Abysmal. Which is interesting because 2 out of the 4 non-fiction books were five stars, and the other two were 3 star reads. I have heaps on nonfiction on my tbr – I honestly felt like i was reading a nonfiction book every month…how did this happen!? So this will also be a reading goal that will rollover to 2024. Hopefully with more success.

To finish or get up to date with more series.

I think I made some headway with this. I would like to better track the series that am reading…i swear i had an excel spreadsheet but for the life of me, i have no idea where it is! So i am going to be better at tracking this for 2024. I really tried to read the next book in a series of the third book, etc., last year so I am counting this as a win.

When I am reflecting on 2024, I would like to have the amount of series i am working through and the series that i was able to read and/or get up to date on!

But! overall in 2023, I read 38 books that were in series. I finished 5 series completely and am up to date with 15 different series. My lord.

Read all of my 2022 new releases on my tbr

At the beginning of 2023, I made a list of books that I wanted to read that were released in 2022 that I hadn’t yet read. I am happy to say that out of 25 i have read all but 5! I am very happy with this. These books are still on my tbr and I am still looking forward to reading them. They are: Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata, Archangel’s Resurrection by Nalini Singh, Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer, Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez, and To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara.

Mum’s challenge

For 2023, my mum issued me a reading challenge. To read a book with a word in the title that corresponds to the first letter of the month. I completed 10 out of the 12 months. January, July, and December were months that I missed out on – I didn’t end up reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath for January, and wasn’t able to find a book on my tbr that I could use for July and December!

The books I read for each month were: