Hello!

With the end of the year rapidly approaching, and the ’10 before the end’ trend going round tiktok, I figure now’s as good a time as any to look at my reading goals for the year and see what I can realistically achieve by the end of the year!

The reading goals I set at the beginning of 2023 were pretty simple:

• Read 42 books
• Read my 23 in 2023
• Monthly book club with my husband to read the books we received as wedding gifts

And generally they’re going alright – I hit my reading goal back in June (which I still can’t quite believe), I’ve read at least one book every month from our little wedding library and I’ve read… some of the 23 books I wanted to read this year (I’ve read 5, it’s not going particularly well).

So here’s what I’m focusing on going into the last few weeks of the year:

Updated reading goal:

I would love to be able to double my goal to 84 – I’m currently on 71 books, so reading 13 more books before the end of the year doesn’t sound too outrageous but with my current monthly average being 6 books per month, it’s going to be close.

If I managed to read everything on my tbr for this month, I’d be at 79 books at the end of November and then five more books in December might just be okay.

It still feels like a bit of a stretch at the moment, but it would be cool for my most successful reading year ever to double my reading goal.

November book buying ban

I’ve been telling myself I’m on a ban for so much of this year but I’ve still managed to buy more than I’ve read, so this month I’m really focusing on not getting anything new. I’ve already been into Waterstones twice and resisted anything both times (miraculous, really). I’m going to let myself do a trip to The Works in December because I want some cute festive romances to read, but other than that I’d really like to try and resist for the rest of the year.

But I have as much self restraint as I have money – none.

Priorities from my 23 for 2023

I’m not going to read the 18 books from this list I haven’t read yet before the New Year (though a little part of me still sees that as a challenge), but I’ve picked three that I’d really like to prioritise by the end of the year – I’ve prioritised the stand-alones because I think starting a series would be too intimidating but this is the start of my ’10 before the end’.

• Book Lovers – Emily Henry
• Loathe To Love You – Ali Hazelwood
• Daisy Jones and The Six – Taylor Jenkins Reid

And I’ve already thought of a plan to make my ’24 in 2024′ more achievable and I’m excited about it.

And to complete the 10 before the end:

4. Heartstopper Volume 5 – Alice Oseman (pre-ordered and ready to go babyyyy)
5. My Policeman – Bethan Roberts (December book club pick)
6. Starling House – Alix E. Harrow (November Illumicrate book)
7. Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief – Rick Riordan (I want to read the series in advance of the show coming out)
8. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – Suzanne Collins
9. Alex Rider: Nightshades Return – Anthony Horowitz
10. Lessons In Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus

I’m somehow more excited and nervous about what my reading will look like next year – I’m really hoping to get back to full time work in 2024 and I think that’s going to significantly cut down my reading time, but simultaneously I’ve got lots of plans to really (try to) cut down my physical tbr, design my own bullet journal style reading journal and maybe even plan a nice sunny holiday where I do nothing but read. But it’s definitely about reminding myself that reading is a hobby to enjoy, not a set of statistics to beat! And I definitely can’t use that as an excuse not to read the super chunky books on my shelves.

If you’ve got any ongoing goals or you’ve set yourself some stretch goals for the year I’d love to hear them!

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx