Welcome to my 14th annual ‘Wrapping Up, Looking Forward’ post. In this post, I take a general look back at how I did with my goals in 2023, and set some new goals for 2024.
Posting and Reading Overview
I posted 36 times in 2023. 58% of those posts occurred in January and December. Why do I ever set a goal of three posts/week, hahaha. The most posts I’ve ever done in a year (exceptional 2020 aside) averaged to just shy of seven posts/month. I will be revising to a monthly posting goal for 2024.
I read 61 books in 2023 (75% of my goal), including 24 middle grade novels. In a huge accomplishment for myself, I reviewed 51% of what I read. (This includes 5 books for which I’ve scheduled their reviews upcoming this month.) I still ended up quite shy of my middle grade goal of 36 books (67% of my goal). However, in 2022, I only read about 18 non-MG books so I’m happier with the balance this year.
I slipped behind all my goals this year but I wrote off February to June, given my work situation. 2023 didn’t keep up with the recovery of 2022. But that’s okay. Recovery is rarely a linear process! I’m feeling confident at this moment, though, to say 2024 will be the year that I thought 2023 was going to be. (And I’m actually feeling better about 2024 than I ever did about 2023, even in the early days).
Personal Goals
- 30 middle grade fiction novels
- 36 was a bit high so I’m reducing down to 30. Conceiving this roughly as two/month, plus four/month in July and August and then a couple extra.
- EDIT 7 Jan: Annemieke @ A Dance With Books has set up a middle grade challenge in Storygraph.
- 8 posts/month, with 4 posts/month during lake time
- Lake time = mid-June to mid-September (if the weather holds), so roughly three months at the reduced rate. The same as in 2023, I’m building in this reduction to give myself some grace. Spending weekends at the lake means no computer and no internet and therefore no time spent blogging.
- This works out to 84 posts for 2024.
- I don’t think I’ve ever set a monthly rather than weekly posting goal? I feel like a genius coming up with this one lol. Ideally I’d like to balance this as a couple posts per week, but I know I need more wiggle room.
- 9 Family Reads
- I know this is quite higher than any other year, but I have a game plan and I’m (striving) to stick with it. 😤 This works out to three per person (Mom, Dad, and sister Ash), with a month’s break between rounds.
- 6 “I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Read that Yet”
- I have learnt my lesson that one/month is too may. Roughly bimonthly seems a good target.
- 80 books read
- Looking back at 12 years of Goodreads Challenges, I can see my reading varies widely. 80 appears to be an achievable median (I’m really aiming for 85 😜).
- Review 40% of what I read in 2024
- While I did hit the 50% target in 2023, I expect to read more books in 2024 so it would be more work to review 50%. 40% might still be optimistic, but I will start with that. If I read 80 books, this means I should review 32 of them. (In 2023, I reviewed 30).
- I wrote a good handful of short reviews (ie paragraph-sized) in 2023. Ideally, I would like to write more fulsome reviews. But I will not discount the shorter format. I’d prefer to post a paragraph review than nothing at all.
- Reread The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings
- The time feels ripe for this!
- Hit 2,200 views/month
- Excluding July and August – there’s always a significant drop off in those months.
- Possibly a bit ambitious but should be doable if I maintain regular participation in the book blogging community (posting and engaging)
- Below are my monthly view counts from Dec 2022 to Jan 2024, with Jan 2023 highlighted. Keep in mind I didn’t post in March, April, May or November, and only in January and December did I post more than four times. For futher context see my Jan 2023 post “Let’s Talk About Stats“.
- January, November, (very nearly) October, and December 2023 exceeded 2,200 views/month.
The 2024 Booktempter’s TBR Challenge
I’m trying out a community challenge this year. I will be logging my progress in StoryGraph. (Goodreads remains my primary book tracking database. I use StoryGraph only for buddy reads; this year, I’m trying out challenges and recommendations. I would love it if it could generate recommendations solely from your to-read shelf… but I digress).
Womble @ Run Along the Shelves hosts this challenge. Imyril @ One More has converted it into a StoryGraph challenge. Complete 12 prompts throughout the year to reduce your TBR (cannot choose ARCS or any books added after 31 Dec 2023). There are also an additional 12 bonus prompts. I like how each prompt is themed to a month without being overly specific, so I’m giving this one a go. I think it’s intended for physical TBRs, but as I barely have one of those, I will be using my Goodreads to-read shelf. I’ll be striving to choose books one month at a time, selecting titles that don’t cross over with my other intentions (ex. Family Reads, already planned to read the book anyway, etc.). Here is a little graphic I’ve whipped up:
Typically at this part of the post I make a note about not making any promises for the new year. At the start of 2023, I suggested 2023 was finally going to be a year of stability, but I didn’t want to make any guarantees. Hah! That was a good call on my part. It was not a year of stability.
This year I am feeling optimistic. December went really well for me in terms of reading, blogging, and life/work balance. A few days off around Christmas has given me some much needed to plan ahead and review blogging plans for 2024. Did you know 2024 marks my tenth year of book blogging? My official blogiversary is in April. I am cooking up a few post ideas for then… I have a feeling this will be my best year of blogging since 2020. My work situation has stabilized, after several years disrupted by COVID (and before, that I was in grad school, so I have never in my life had a stable work situation haha). I expect to remain with the same organization throughout the year. So, here’s to carrying my December momentum and habits through 2024.
How was your 2023 reading year? What goals or challenges are you undertaking in 2024?
I know what you mean, I also feel a positive vibe going into 2024, and I’m very energized when it comes to blogging. I guess ride those feelings as long as you can, right? I love your goals, good luck!
It is encouraging to hear other folks feeling the same! Yes, let’s embrace it while it lasts 😁
Feeling very inspired to start looking back on my own goals from the past year. 10 years is incredible! April is my blogiversary month too though I think I’m at 7 years now
It can be a cathartic experience! I always enjoy this time of year. Do you typically do anything for your blogiversary? (I don’t usually, so I’m keeping my eye out for more ideas!)
well last year it ended up falling on Canadian Independent Bookstore Day so I did unintentionally lol! But I haven’t done anything specific besides a special blog post most years
That’s fun! Maybe I’ll do something like “Favourite Bookstores from the Past 10 Years”, lol.
Reviewing 51% of your reads is fantastic. I don’t think I did as much, so kudos. I love that you have goals to read with your family. What fun! I hope you are able to accomplish all your goals and that this year is truly rewarding for you personally and professionally.
Thank-you so much Alicia! 😊 I wouldn’t want to look at past years, but I’m sure 51% reviewed is by far my highest ratio, haha.
I also am feeling so confident and hopeful going into 2024, which is exciting but also scary because last year was ROUGH. I hope you have a wonderful, more relaxed year and find the stability!
Thank-you!! Let’s both have an excellent (or at least somewhat improved lol) 2024 😤
61 books! That’s a great final tally. Plus 10 years of blogging coming up is lovely accomplishment, too.
I know what you mean about recovery not being a linear process. Your confidence in the possibilities of 2024 is sort of infectious 🙂
Thanks so much Louise 🙂 I don’t know how many years you have been blogging, but I do know your blog is one of the ones I’ve been following longest!
Those are some great goals and I think you accomplished a lot!
I always set monthly posting goals, it’s something I learnt after setting weekly posting goals as well. Setting a goal for reviewing a certain percentage of the books you read sounds interesting, I might give it a shot. I’m notoriously bad when it comes to reviewing books…
Good luck for your 2024 goals!!
Thanks Charvi! Keeping on top of reviewing what I read is one of my biggest challenges, so setting that goal has helped keep it more forward in my mind. I’m also working on letting go of what I think a review ‘should’ be, and focusing more on just putting some thoughts out into the world.
I support you in your enthusiasm and positivity regarding 2024 and I hope this year will be the year you’ll reach all your goals/succeed in all your challenges! Is there any particular strategy behind how you pick the MG books you want to read? Are they books from your childhood that you’re rereading, for example? 😀 Happy New Year, Jenna! 😀
Thanks very much! For MG, I’m ideally looking for secondary world fantasy with evocative prose but I’m open to a lot of different things, especially stories that share perspectives not previously published in MG. There’s so much more out there than when I was a kid, so I’m reading a lot of books published within recent years, mostly post-2016.
I love your goals for 2024! They’re inspiring me to come up with more concrete plans for myself too. I also love that 58% of your posts last year were in the month of January and December, I can definitely see myself doing that too! Good luck on your goals this year!
Haze @ The Book Haze
https://thebookhaze.com
10 years! That’s so exciting! I’m definitely the same way with posting – the new year is full of vim and vigour, and then life sets in, hahahaha.
Thanks Jane! The years have really clipped along. I feel like I’m still going strong at the end of the month 💪🏻 Though I’ll soon run out of posts I drafted during Christmas break so who knows what will happen then 😝
Recovery isn’t linear but I keep forgetting that this year (gosh and we are only one month in). We need to give ourselves some grace.
Sounding like some great goals. I think you’ll do fine on your 2200 views a month goal. (and the others too of course 😉 )
Yes! One step at a time 🧡 Thanks Annemieke 😊 I hope February looks up for you.