2021: YEAR IN REVIEW!

 

I can't believe we've reached the end of the year.  I think this may be the only month this year that I actually read all my goal books!  Next year, one of my plans is to take my goal books at the beginning of each month and put them on my bedside table (or on an easily accessible shelf) so I won't forget the plan.  My goal this year was to read 52 books - seemed like an easy one-per-month number.  I ended up reading 84.  I didn't feel like it was too many or that I was stressed or reading all the time.  But, I think that I pass up some of my longer books on the shelf because it seems like it will bring my reading total down!  That, obviously, is silly.  So, in 2022, I am going to set a round reading target of 50 books - but with the goal of tackling some of the longer titles on my to-read list, such as Cloud Cuckoo Land  and that most recent Ken Follet novel.  I vow not to let the numbers interfere with my reading enjoyment!

I have set up a few to-read shelves around the house with my priority books for 2022.  Most of these are books I bought during 2021.  But, I have so many books that have languished on my shelves for over a decade.  Another one of my goals for the year is to go through these - either pick them as books to read, or make a final decision that I probably won't ever get to a point where I'm interested in reading them anymore, and give them away.  While it's nice in some sense to look at full shelves, I don't necessarily like to look at shelves full of books I just feel kind of blah about.  I also always wonder whether I should be more methodical about my reading - or keep doing it the way I usually do, which is pick up what looks good when it looks good, and request books when I like, and buy other things when they look good.  I can see the value in both approaches for my own enjoyment of my books...so I assume I will continue to do some type of hybrid where I make a plan, abandon it, read some random books, and repeat throughout the year!

Goal Books for December

1. That Summer by Jennifer Weiner (Fiction/Borrowed)
2. The Three Mothers by Anna Malaika Tubbs (Non-Fiction/Library)
3. Dexter is Dead by Jeff Lindsay (Fiction/Library)
4. The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave (Mystery/Library)

Books Read in December:

1. That Summer by Jennifer Weiner (Fiction/Borrowed)
2. The Three Mothers by Anna Malaika Tubbs (Non-Fiction/Library)
3. Dexter is Dead by Jeff Lindsay (Fiction/Library)
4. The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave (Mystery/Library)
5. The Authenticity Project by Claire Pooley (Fiction)
6. Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead (Fiction/Library)
7. Among the Mad by Jaqueline Winspear (Mystery/Library)
8. The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (Fiction/Shelves)
9. Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune by Roselle Lim (Romance/Library)

Goal Books for January....not quite sure yet, but I'll try for these:

1. How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith (Non-Fiction/Book Club/Library)
2. The Guncle by Steven Rowley (Fiction/Shelves)
3. Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown (Non-Fiction/Shelves)
4. The Sweeney Sisters by Lian Dolan (Fiction/Shelves)

Happy Reading!