This past year, I read 177 books. I managed to meet–and exceed–my goal of reading 144 books in a year, which is awesome. But a lot of those books were re-reads. I want to grow as a reader, and growth means challenging myself. So for this upcoming year, I’ve changed my goals. After some careful consideration, I’ve come up with the following goals or guidelines to inform my reading this upcoming year:
- I will read (at least) 100 books.
- I will not reread any books (this does not count books that I started previously and then abandoned), with the possible exception of the Harry Potter series, which I re-read every summer (we’ll see how it goes).
- At least 10 books (roughly one book per month) must have been published before 1950.
- I will read at least 10 books by authors of color.
- At least 10 books will be nonfiction.
In addition to these specific, concrete goals, I hope to continue to improve in my writing reviews for books. Keeping track of what I read, when I read it, and where the book is from is something that I love to do, and I will continue to do that this year. I’m still working on creating a more organized, streamlined system.
In addition to these reading goals, I’m participating in the 2011 Debut Author Challenge. In addition to reading 2011 debuts by authors, I hope to read more title published during the course of the year. I’m excited about this challenge, as well as the personal challenges I’ve set for myself. We’ll see how it goes.
Happy reading, y’all.
