Let’s take a look at my past year in reading, take about my plans for the new year and chat about some things bookish 🙂
My year in books; 2023
originally, i had pledge to read 100 books in 2023. I ended up changing my goal to 80 books more than halfway through the year as i was pretty sure i wouldn’t reach my original goal. By the end of the year I had read 75 books, only 5 books shy of my adjusted goal and 25 books from my original goal. It’s definitely not my best year reading-wise but also not my worst.
Here are the books I read in 2023; (excuse the blurriness, I can’t seem to figure out how to not make it blurry)
Looking back, I am realizing I have read a lot of really good books in 2o23! I have reread and finished series I had started a while ago, found new all time favourites and discovered new authors and new series!
Here are some honorable mentions;
Daughter of the Moon Goddess & Heart of the Sun Warrior by Sue Lynn Tan
The Celestial Kingdom is a Duology (plus a prequel that just came out that I haven’t read yet), both books came out in 2022 and I absolutely devoured these books! I read them back-to-back on my kindle then immediately ordered copies of the books for my collection!
Also, these covers are gorgeous!
Fire Keeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Another gorgeous cover and amazing read! Angeline Boulley has now made her way onto my automatically-buy authors list because of how much I enjoyed reading this book!
This book made mee feel all the emotions, I laughed, I cried, I was on the edge of my seat and I was not disappointed with Angeline Boulley’s writing and story telling!
Carrie Sotto is back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
It is no surprise that Taylor Jenkins Reid is one of my all time favourite author, I have read all of her books and loved them all and this one was no different! I’ve connected to this story on such a deep level, words fail me, I can’t explain why or how but I whole heartedly fell in love with this story.
Statistics;
Most of the books I read in 2023 I rated 4/5 stars.
Only 4 books found themselves in the 1/5 stars category. 3 out of them were classics LOL!
The longest book I read was Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare at 699 pages and the shortest book I read was Bound by Avida Vice at 51 pages. Funny enough, these are two of my all time favourite authors!
21 of these books were re-reads.
Only one book was a DNF - it was a reread and a classic.
My total of pages read in 2023 is 25 227 pages.
2024 reading goals;
In 2024 I plan to read 150 books, twice as much as last year!
So far, as I am writing this, I have read 13 books and am one book behind schedule according to goodreads but I do plan on finishing one of my current reads either today or tomorrow so everything is going great so far.
One of the things that is going to help me read more this year is my book club. Since December 2023, i have been in a book club with 4 other girls in my hometown who read the genres as I do, we pick a book every month and then once we’re all done reading it, we meet-up to talk about it and review it together. This will not only hold me accountable to read more but I believe it will also help me better review books without simply saying I liked it or hated it.
Another goal of mine is to read the books I currently have instead of buying all the new releases, and focus on my actual TBR of books that have been collecting dust on my bookshelf.
In summer of 2023 I decided to do a HUGE cleanup of my books, I unhauled close to 300 books – some that I doubles, some that I had read but didn’t like, some I had bought but never read and now am not interested in reading anymore – I then compiled a list of all the books I kept that I want to read or reread and my main goal for 2024 is to slowly, but surely make a dent in that list. Once I’ve read a book, if I liked it it goes back on the shelf, if I didn’t like it, I un-haul it. I want my collection to be only of the books I truly love. I will also be using my kindle and my library more as it is cheaper and keeps me from buying books I potentially won’t keep.
Thank you for reading! Leave a comment telling me about your 2023 reads or you reading goals for 2024.
Have a magical day, xo
seven late night thoughts with zoe 
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