Well, it seems impossible but tomorrow marks the first day of the second half of 2024. And I have to say, it’s been a good reading year for me thus far. I’ve had some challenges in my personal life and with my health, but that has allowed me more reading time, so I will focus on that. (We have to at least attempt to stay positive, right?) And if I’m being very honest, I hate the summer weather and will be staying inside to read. Let’s get into my 2024 Reading Goals Update 2 for April to June 2024!
2024 Reading Goals Update 2
As always, if you want to add me on StoryGraph (under the username AnHistorianAboutTown ), you absolutely can! I’m fairly active there and am always happy for more reading friends. (And you will notice below that StoryGraph now makes cover collages for each month’s read books.)
So far, my goals are going fairly well! I have to pay attention to the books that I’m picking up so that I’m continuing to meet my goals but I am okay with that- that’s why I set them. It was actually more difficult than I thought to read 80% female authors, which surprised me. I’m in a mystery mood right now, and there are less female mystery authors that you would think once you are out of the cosy space. Still, I am making it work!
*NEW* Read Female Authors for 80% of Books Read- 40/49 = 81%
As I said above, this was a slightly difficult goal to meet- I’ve actually put a few books by male authors aside to read later in the year. Interestingly when I’ve spoken to people about this goal, I’m often asked why I don’t read whatever books interest me regardless of the author. However, in many genres that I love (including non-fiction history, biography, and mystery), female authors are not published anywhere close to as often as their male counterparts. And it is incredibly disappointing to see- I’m only one person, but I’m going to continue to make a point to support female authors!
I also have to say, my reading in the last 12 months has been skewed by me reading Rick Riordan’s entire back catalogue.
Use Library, NetGalley, Owned Books for 80%+ of Books Read – 42/49 = 85%
This goal was strictly to help my wallet and it is really doing the trick. I will fully admit, I have purchased some books but nowhere near as many as I normally would have. (And some have been classics that were 3 for $10 deals!) NetGalley actually has less that I’ve been interested in as of late but I’m not concerned- I still have hundreds and hundreds of books to keep me busy anyways.
Interestingly, my library has really slowed down on ebooks and audiobooks- whereas new popular books would start with 3-4 copies, they will have 1 copy with 60 people waiting. And even classics and random older books will have a several month wait. I’m happy to see that people are reading but it can be a tad frustrating. I’ve been making good use of the Audible Plus catalogue, as that is included in my membership anyways. (There are a surprising number of great history and biography books there!)
Read 25 New to Me Authors – 49/25 (196%)
Well, if I do say so myself- I have knocked this one out of the park. This one did not take a whole lot of extra work- I simply made a point to look for authors I wasn’t familiar with on NetGalley and at the library and to be willing to try them. And I have to admit, I’ve already read multiple books from some of the new-to-me authors; there is nothing like discovering a whole catalogue to enjoy. (I do recognise that I might have less new-to-me authors later in the year because of this but I’m absolutely okay with this.
Read 1 Classic a Month- 6/6
This one has been slightly tougher than I thought it would be, as well, only because I’m just not reaching for classics this spring like I normally do. Still, I’ve kept up! I will say, this chunk of three did not hold me.
In April I read Brideshead Revisited from Evelyn Waugh and this was essentially Downton Abbey but exceptionally annoying for me. (Clearly, that minor in English paid off…) For May I decided to try a children’s classic with Peter Pan (from JM Barrie). It wasn’t terrible- I would say it was the best classic out of this group, there were more differences from the Disney movie than I expected. (I suspect that I’m not alone in the Disney movie being my main exposure.) And June’s classic was Whose Body by Dorothy Sayers. I’ve not read any novels from Sayers before and I know that many who enjoy Agatha Christie also enjoy her novels but it was simply fine for me.
DNF Books (If Relevant)
Again, I don’t want to mention any titles or authors here because I think that the books that I DNF’d would absolutely work well for other readers. (It wasn’t that they were poorly written or structured, just that they didn’t connect with me.) However, I’m pretty happy that I DNF’d ten books from April to June, because it means that I was able to spend that time reading books that did work for me. Life is too short to read books that you aren’t enjoying!
♠
Want to see my first quarter update for my 2024 reading goals? You can find it here!
What have you been reading this spring?
Cheers,
The Historian
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