It may seem crazy but I am here with my first quarterly update for my 2024 Reading Goals- we are a week into April now and the reading year is flying along. While I’ve not had a ton of incredible books this year, I have had many enjoyable books. I’ve tried to focus on starting my day by reading (in any form), and to read before turning on the TV at night. It’s not that I didn’t read before, but those two changes mean I read a lot more now. I’m happy to say I read 45 books from January to March 2024. Let’s get into my 2024 Reading Goals Update 1!
2024 Reading Goals Update 1
*NEW* Read Female Authors for 80% of Books Read
Yes, I’ve added another goal for this year! For Women’s History Month, I set myself a goal of reading books by women about women. And given that I read a lot of history and biography, it became glaringly obvious that female authors are still limited*, especially in history. Historical fiction is better for representation, but many novels are still focused on men.
So, I’ve decided to set myself a goal for the rest of the year to prioritise female authors, both in non-fiction and fiction.
*I do recognise that this is largely a result of societal expectations of men vs women- it is the literary equivalent of why men are able to advance in their careers while women are carrying out much of the mental labour and home labour.
Use Library, NetGalley, Owned Books for 80%+ of Books Read – 37/45 = 82%
I have to alter this goal a tad- I am also going to include books that I’ve borrowed through the Audible Plus catalogue. Yes, I do have a membership to get access to the Plus catalogue, but it is not an extra fee. And quite frankly, I am proud that I’ve been checking there first when looking for a new audiobook!
82% of my books were either ARCs, library books, books I’ve owned for at least a year. All in all, I think that is great. Between audiobooks, ebooks, and physical books, I’ve got probably 500+ books in the “owned for at least a year” category so in the summer I’m going to focus more on those. (I have stopped checking Kobo and Audible for sales all the time, which helps.)
Read 25 New to Me Authors -23/25
I made a great start on this goal, as well. Prioritising Audible Plus helped me find new authors that I would not otherwise have discovered. I’ve found that my library is not adding anywhere near as many physical, audio, or ebooks to the catalogue as they used to in the past, so I’ve not been finding many new-to-me authors there. However, I’m going to make a point to go through my own books to see which fall into this category! (I suspect that I’ve got probably 100+ to keep me busy already.) I am going to try and focus on new non-fiction authors for the next quarter, as most were fiction authors for the first part of the year!
Read 1 Classic a Month- 3/3
I don’t know about you, but I read snippets of countless classics in preparation for my AP Lit exam in high school. (Yes, we were supposed to read them entirely but 3 books/week for months on end don’t happen with a full schedule, homework, and life in general.) I’m not picking from that list exclusively, but I do have a lot of ideas from it. My January classic was The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, and I loved it. I’ve somehow never read any Wharton and I’m absolutely going to be reading more this year. In February, I was in a Buddy Read on StoryGraph for Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. While it was enjoyable, I would say it could have been shorter and felt like it was written for serial publication rather than as one novel. My March classic was Agnes Grey by Anne Brontё, and it was not my favourite book I’ve ever read. (It felt very drab, like a black and white version of a colour story.) I’m considering bumping up this goal to 2 classics a month, but it will depend on what is available from the library/Audible Plus.
DNF Books (If Relevant)
I’m not going to mention which books (I do not want to sway others) but I have DNF’d 8 books this year. Given that in the past I would maybe DNF 3-4 books a year and would spend time reading books I’m not enjoying in the least, I’m proud I was able to do that. I keep telling myself, life is too short to read books I’m not enjoying. There is 1 book that I may go back in the future, but otherwise, those books are for other readers!
What are your favourite books of 2024 so far?
Cheers,
The Historian
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