Brilliant! I have read fifteen (15) books this year so far. It puts me 63% of the way towards my goal of 24 books read. I'd chosen 24 books because I didn't want to tempt another reading slump by setting goals too high despite a strong end to my 2022 reading year. A lesson I learned some time ago, I apply to both writing and reading: Do not move the goal posts. So, I'm hoping I finish well above my goal this year and can make a better goal next year. So What Did I Read? My "Moods" can easily be explained by the next few graphs - Fiction/Non-fiction and Genre. In effect, "informative" is because I've read a bunch of non-fiction this quarter, especially craft books and some books to learn other new skills. "Adventurous" and "dark" are because I primarily read SFF. The rest happen to be sprinkled in.
I've stuck with mostly medium-paced books, but every-so-often, I sneak in a fast or slow paced book.  Best Books of the Year - So FarI've got three (3) books that I've thoroughly enjoyed this year.  I read Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, Narrated by Moira Quirk in January. I adore Quirk's narration. If I didn't have a group who chatted about The Locked Tomb series, I would have been a lot more confused and maybe not enjoyed it as much. I can't wait to re-read Gideon, Harrow, and Nona in preparation for Alecto.  The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros has been on my physical Mt. TBR for many years. I read the audiobook in March, narrated by the author. I said it before, hearing an author read their own work is powerful, especially in audiobook production. This book I wish I'd read back in the '80s when it came out. It would have meant so much to me then and would have definitely made a favorites list then.  The craft book I will whole-heartedly recommend is Never Say You Can't Survive by Charlie Jane Anders. She starts out big picture and hones down to sentence-level craft. Excellently explained, written, and read. Other Reading Challenges I only read one book a week-ish. Despite managing to add a second book to the Trans Rights Readathon, I didn't complete it within the March 20 - 27th window, so only one book was counted. I would never have been able to complete three books in a week. Even at my most-read year of over 100 books in 2019, I didn't get through three books in a week. I've read three (3) books by Black Authors in 2023. I do not expect to read 20 books by Black authors in 2023. If I read only 24 books (my goal), I will likely read books by authors that fit my other challenges and may not be black. But this does hold me accountable to keeping my reading of books by Black authors high. I've read books that filled ten (10) prompts out of the thirty-one (31) for the Decolonize Your Bookshelf Reading Challenge 2023. I do not expect to read books that fulfill all 31 prompts. Again, my goal is 24 books. Some books are pulling double or triple-duty. But I don't count on that. Plus, I'm subject to when books become avaialble for reading. I hope to get at least 2/3 of the prompts completed. And on it goes!My next reflection should happen in about three (3) more months. By goals, I'll read six (6) books. But if my current pace keeps up, I'll have fifteen (15) more to tell you about and six (6) months worth of data to show off from StoryGraph.
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2022 Reading Reflection
You can see by my Goodreads banner that I did manage to make my 2022 reading goal - 18 of 15 books! If you read my 2022 update about 2021, you'll know that this is actually quite an improvement over last year.
I had an amazing reading year in 2019 with 105 books. I also wrote 350k words in the last 4 months of the year. And bought a house and moved. I'm not sure how I did all of that in 2019. But 2020 came along and well, 2020. I didn't have a huge issue reading or writing during most of 2020. But many of the books I was reading in 2020 came from a reading group for discussion - all chosen by the reading group leader. And when books are chosen for you because you want to participate in a discussion, well, sometimes your reading speed drops off.
Everything caught up to me in 2021 and I read only 8 books. I read a bunch of work that was unpublished, and if I'd managed to track that then my reading would have been much higher. But the slowdown was, in fact, everything becoming more like wading through molasses rather than letting up.
Unfortunately, that slowdown continued well into 2022. Of the 18 books I read, 15 were completed in the last 4 months of this year.
Last Quarter of 2022
I went from a goal of posting about my favorite monthly read to quarterly read to silence. I'm back at giving quarterly faves and suggestions. I sort of did an entire year update back in September after reading 4 whole books in a few weeks!
Favorite Reads of 2022
All my favorite reads I read in the last quarter of 2022. Here they are.
2023
First Time for EverythingThis is my first quarterly reading update, despite making a goal to have these each quarter in 2022. That's because I read about three published books along with several beta reads prior to August 2022. I've been struggling to read for most of 2021 and 2022.  Audiobooks and novellas save the day!I have no idea why, but I asked a group of avid readers about the best audiobooks a couple of weeks ago. Reading print is still a struggle for me. The only published book I've read in print for most of the year was Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire on a plane flight to go to a close relative's funeral this summer. That book is a) written by one of my favorite authors, b) filled with characters I already know from a series, and c) short.  And if I may make a confession, I hear that title sung in the same cadence as "Where the Down Boys Go," which both dates me and tells you some of the music I listened to in my formative years. My group made suggestions and I cross-referenced them with books already on my wishlist. One was All Systems Red by Martha Wells. I already owned both a physical copy and an e-book copy and had yet to read it. I thoroughly enjoyed Keven R. Free's rendering of the story and the story itself.  Okay, you may see a trend here, of novellas that are also Hugo and Nebula Award winners or part of a series that is. Sometimes when in a reading funk, you have to go with what you know is good and easy.
I'm pleased to say that in the past ten days, I've completed four published books. In June, I read two books, and a single book in February. This doesn't count beta reads and critiques (on which I'm constantly behind my promised timelines.) This doesn't count short stories, of which I read 20-100 monthly. As of the writing of this post, I'm reading the third Murderbot Diary novella. I'm interspersing them between longer reads as pieces of candy. Hopefully, this reading streak will continue. I'd had high hopes after reading Beowulf A Translation by Maria Headley, but they were for naught. That's my 2022 Quarter 3 reading update. Do you have some excellent audiobooks to recommend? ReflectionOn New Year's Day 2021, I posted what I thought were reasonable goals for my reading. They turned out to be overly ambitious.
2022 GoalsI will include unpublished work in my book counts but I need to figure out how to remember them. But I will aim to read at least one published book a month as well. I will post a quarterly reading reflection. This wraps up my disappointing reading reflection for the year 2021 and my vague reading goals for 2022.  I have two books I read in February. I'll admit that I am struggling to read at all and am not making my reading goals.  My writerly read this month was Business Essentials for Writers by Jim Nettles. This book will be helpful for anybody who plans to make a living writing stories and books. It tells you where traditional publishing falls short and where you will need to pick up the slack. It tells you what you need to invest in as a self-published author. It isn't a read-straight-through book, other than to glean what information it has. It is a reference book.  My fun-read this month was The Unbroken by C.L. Clark. I was lucky enough to get an advanced reader e-copy. I haven't quite finished it yet as my fun-reading is slow lately.
I have been reading unpublished work by several writers, and I can't wait until I can put them on my "what I read" posts for you to also enjoy. I read two books in January. My writing craft book was Save the Cat and my fun-read was The Demon's Pursuit of Mor.  My Storygraph is a little odd, but the mix of the books I read follows the above Moods and Pace.
I still need to write a logline for my books, but it's something I intend to do going forward. Like most things, it just takes practice.
Question: I only have my monthly reading reflection planned for blogging right now. Eventually, I will be publishing some of my short fiction. What would you like to see in this space? What would you like to see from me?
 Blogging Goal: In 2021, I will try to do a monthly summary of books I read via Storygraph.
My reading goal for the year 2021 is 36 books. In 2018, I read 50, and in 2019, I read 100. 2020: In 2020, I read somewhere between 30 and 40 books. In general, the "adventure," "dark," "informative," and "emotional" labels are exactly what I read. I have fun reads that I pick up and read with a reading group. I have craft reads to improve my writing. I also read books to learn other things in life. In general, I will discuss some of my fun reads and the writing craft books. My favorite book of 2020 was The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson (2020). Every time I try to describe the story, what I loved, all the words just do not encompass it. In terms of writing craft, I found Query Craft by Angie Hodapp (2020) to be helpful. If you are looking for information on querying agents for your novel, this is a good book to start your journey. Even if you have been querying, you might glean a new tip or two. This was one of the first books I read in decades on the topic of publishing novels, so I had a lot to learn. What did you read in 2020? What was your favorite book? |
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