Last year, I took on a massive new reading challenge on Goodreads, tasking myself with reading 150 new books, and choosing to challenge myself within specific categories. My challenge was ridiculously long in the details and long in the reading.
Did I complete it? Yes. You can see it here: 2023 Challenge
Did I do all the specifics I originally mentioned and listed on this page here? No.
I read 7/12 books of poetry, 17/24 books of Middle Grade Fiction, 22/24 books of nonfiction, 6/12 audiobooks, and I didn’t finish reading the New Testament for the 18th time.
But I did read: more than 24 books of YA fiction, more than 24 books of Sci-fi/Fantasy, more than 12 diverse books, more than 8 books outside my usual favorite genres, more than 24 books by Indie authors, and more than four devotionals.
My 2024 Challenge is a bit different from last year’s challenge.
- I am going to reread at least 50 books on my shelves, and I am thinking of planning these rereads out before I get to them, so readers can join in with me on discussion posts.
- I am going to read at least 30 books that are new to me.
- I am challenging with these extra specifics: to read 12 nonfiction books, 6 graphic novels, 6 poetry books, and 10 Middle Grade Fiction books, as well as actually finishing the New Testament for the 18th time. I plan to listen to 12 audiobooks, too. (This is within the numbers above, and not addition to them.)
- I am also moving away from Goodreads and plan to review all new books at Amazon and Bookbub. I will track them in a notebook and do some reporting here. Tracking them on my challenge page in 2023 began to feel like an onerous task, so I may/may not do that. It will depend on how things go.
It’s a more relaxed challenge and one which I hope will celebrate the good books I already have on my shelves. I used to enjoy rereading immensely and I would like to get back to rereading more often. It became a chore to focus on new books, and while I will admit that leaning into my challenge to read graphic novels did help me achieve that 150 number, it was less enjoyable at some points in the year.