What motivates you to read? Are you someone who likes to do challenges with prompts, like the PopSugar Reading Challenge? In previous years, I tried to keep track of my PopSugar Challenge progress on this blog, but always lost steam at some point in the year. I did finish the past 3 years! Each year, I entered December with a daunting list of prompts to fill: always the ones that I hadn’t found books that I was truly excited to read. And every year, it made reading feel like a chore. In 2023, I had just 3 prompts left to fill. But when the 2024 list was posted, I almost quit just because the 2024 is SO HARD for me primarily as a romance and fantasy reader.
Now, I’m not trying to tell y’all that PopSugar is terrible and we should all complain about the prompts. The Facebook group has been full of complaints all year that the prompts have been catering to us romance readers. So this year is just not our year, and I’m ok with that. 2024 will be my break year where I don’t have to worry about challenges with specific prompts! To see what goals I AM setting for 2024, see my post from the beginning of the year!
If you enjoy having prompts to help you pick which books you want to read, I applaud you (and may end up back with you by March, we’ll see!), and wish you the best of luck with your Challenge!
This is the second time I’ve used Nora Roberts to fulfill a reading prompt for a specific year/decade, and both were very much products of their time. While this book was kind of fun, there were some problematic elements that kept me from fully enjoying it.
First – consent. Remember during the MeToo era when we were like “no means no” and that was like…revolutionary? Books like this is why that was revolutionary. If someone says stop and their partner does not IMMEDIATELY stop…ew.
Second – the male lead was Native American, which is cool for diversity and inclusion except when it was stereotypical and borderline racist. Now, maybe I’m stereotyping the 80s, but I was mostly pleasantly surprised by the representation with just a few throwaway lines that raised my eyebrows. I think the current rule of thumb is to include diverse characters but not write about the experience of being marginalized unless you have also experienced it.
Have you read a Nora Roberts book that you loved? Please tell me so I can give her a fighting chance! So far, I have been suggested The Awakening series and Inheritance.
2022 Successes: – Passed my goal of 50 books and read 130 (why I chose 50 books) – Reached 7,500+ followers on instagram – Finished the PopSugar 2022 Challenge – continued reviewing for my favorite indie bookstore – made it to 40%+ on Netgalley – was accepted into audiobook influencer programs (Libro.fm, Harper Audio, Penguin Random House, and Macmillan)
1: Read 100 books
I read 100 books in both 2021 and 2022, so I think this is a pretty achievable goal. But, if the past few years have taught me anything, it’s that life has unexpected twists and turns. Maybe I’ll have an exciting opportunity that leads to less reading time, or maybe I’ll read a giant epic fantasy series and they take longer to read than a romcom binge. Just in case, I set my Goodreads goal to it’s lowest ever number this year – 25 books!
Am I going to read more than 25 books this year? Almost definitely! Since 2013 I have read more than 40 books a year. So why set the bar that low? Honestly, I am really used to my Goodreads Challenge saying I’m ahead of schedule and over 100% and I just can’t handle it saying I’m behind on my goal. Do I need to get stressed out by my Goodreads progress bar? No. But I do, so instead of fighting it, I’m just going to move my goal as I hit it!
If (when!) I hit 100 books read, I probably won’t increase my goal unless it really looks possible for me to hit 150 or 200. It’s not like I am going to stop reading because of an arbitrary number, but I will feel proud of myself if I have over 100% on Goodreads.
I am so fortunate to get so many ARCs and ALCs…this year I need to focus on only requesting my TOP books and then actually reading and reviewing them. And then…I also need to catch up on my backlist.
My main goal is to hit 50% on Netgalley and stay there! (I’m really hoping I can bump that up to 60% in the second half of the year…we’ll see how it goes.)
3: Net Zero Unread Physical Books
This feels super awkwardly worded but here we go…I think my main personality trait is buying too many books. It gives me so much joy to research upcoming books and buy stacks of books, but my shelves are out of control. I just want to be able to fit all of my books onto my shelves!
So what do I mean by “net zero”? I know I’m going to buy books and bring in new review copies – but I want that number to match the number of total books that I read this year. I actually met this goal last year, and I feel a little less overwhelmed than in previous years!
4: Read Diverse Authors
This has been a continued goal since way back in 2015. I consider a read “diverse” if it represents a identities that are different than mine.
This year, I want to focus on Latinx authors across the diaspora, and read at least 6 books by Latinx authors. I chose Latinx authors because I realized I had read very few books by Latinx authors.
5: Complete 2 Reading Challenges
PopSugar Reading Challenge 2023
I finished the PopSugar Challenge in 2021 and 2022, and I want do it again this year! The PopSugar challenge has 40 prompts and 10 bonus prompts. My goal the past 2 years has been to complete around 4 prompts each month. However, each year I’ve started out doing this easily for the first few months, completing prompts that are easy for me to fill. By the summer I’ll only have 12 or so prompts – but they will be the ones that challenge me the most!
This year, I divided up the challenge, and came up with four categories: 1) Hard Prompts – books I would not choose to read for fun on my own (but all books I think would be interesting to read!) examples: a book banned in any state in 2022, a book about an athlete or sport, a celebrity memoir 2) Prompts that might challenge me – these prompts are likely more specific, but I’m able to fill them with “fun reads” examples: author with the same initials as you, book written during NaNoWriMo 3) Prompts I might have to think about – these are definitely in my wheelhouse, but kind of specific examples: a book with a fat lead, a book with a love triangle 4) Prompts that require no effort (for me) examples: a book published in the second half of 2023, a book you bought secondhand, a book by a first time author
Then, I made myself a 2023 reading TBR and used a randomizer app (wheelofnames.com) to assign 1 prompt from each category for each month. Did this whole process take over 2 hours? Yes. Don’t judge me this is how I have fun.
The Shelfie Chronicles Sweatpants & Spice Challenge
This challenge was SO much fun last year! I am fairly new to reading romance, but I’ve always loved reading about people falling in love so I don’t know why I took so long to get invested in the genre. This challenge uses tropes and subgenres that you find in a lot of romance novels, so if you read a lot of romance it is really fun!
This challenge does require you to join the private facebook group. Every two weeks, a prompt is pulled. You keep track of your reading on your own personal BINGO board, and the first one to complete a BINGO of pulled prompts gets a prize! There are lots of prizes for BINGOs, double BINGOs, and blackouts.
I view goals as intentions that may change depending on life circumstances, so these are all hopes and hopefully nothing that will feel stressful this year!
Did you set any reading goals or intentions? I’d love to hear about them!
Jana and Books 