A Bookish Year in Review & 2017 Goals

I’ve already reflected on my favourite reads of 2016 but thought that before we get too far into the New Year, it would be good to take a look back at my reading year in general and check up on how well I achieved my goals before I set some new ones.

The first of my targets for 2016 was to read 100 books in total. By the end of December, I had in fact managed to get through 137, so that one gets a definite tick.

Next was a desire to try more non-fiction books. I read 22 in all, and when compared to the grand total of 1 that I read a year earlier, I’d say that’s a step in the right direction, and something I plan to continue.

I also said that I wanted to read more classics. I definitely upped my intake compared to previous years, but there are still a lot I want to get to, so this is an ongoing one.

Finally came a general aim to read diversely. I’m definitely content to say that I achieved that in terms of form and genre, reading an eclectic mix of novels, short story collections, poetry, non-fiction, graphic novels and a few plays, amongst other things. However, I don’t think you can ever really read diversely enough in terms of authorship, representation and ‘own voice’ literature, as it’s something we can all continuously seek out more of.

I suppose this brings me nicely to my first goal for 2017. I’ve seen a few ‘bingo’ style resolution charts, where each box has a reading task to be achieved, and you try and complete the chart by the end of the year. I loved the idea, but couldn’t find one that necessarily included all the areas I wanted to make sure I cover, so I put one together myself. (By all means, if anyone in search of some diverse reading goals wants to use the same chart, please feel free to do so.)

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My diverse reading goals

There may well be some that I achieve several times over, but my reckoning is that if I can tick each one off at least once, that will be a minimum of 16 diverse reads covered. It’s the first time I’ve taken on a specific reading challenge like this and I’m excited to give it a go.

As for other reading goals, I’ve set my Goodreads reading target for 100 books again, and having managed to up my intake of both non-fiction and classics last year, the only real hole left in my reading is plays. I am very much still a believer that a play has to be seen to be fully appreciated, but not living in a big city like London, realistically I have to accept that the only way for me to enjoy most plays will be to read them, and I’d hate to feel I was missing out on some potentially amazing stories because I ‘don’t read plays’. This target was buoyed by the fact that my third favourite read of the whole of last year was in fact a play: Peter and Alice by John Logan; one of only 3 plays I read all year.

I look forward to hopefully discovering some new favourite books in 2017 and chatting about them here on the book-blogosphere. Last but not least, I thought I’d share all my 2016 monthly wrap up pics, so I (and anyone else who’s interested) can look back at all the books I read in one place, at a glance. If any titles or covers catch your eye and you’d like to know more, don’t hesitate to ask :)

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All the books I read in January

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All the books I read in February

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All the books I read in March

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All the books I read in April

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All the books I read in May

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All the books I read in June