I wrote this initially on December 31st, as you do for annual wrap-ups, but wanted to go over my spreadsheet trends in a blog post because the format’s better for graphs etc. than Goodreads. If you follow me over there, you already saw a version of this but it’ll be a little bit edited here… and I wanted to get this done earlier but, well, I had a baby last month and my time and energy have been focused on the wee one. While I probably should try to record an audio version I…. dunno if I’ll have an adequate window of time! Onwards…
2022 was my most substantial reading year logged so far on Goodreads with a whopping 112 logged, and 117 on my spreadsheet (some Kickstarter or self-published books were not on GR and I did not feel like making new entries at the time) which is really funny considering I lowered my goal to 60. Of course, this number should be taken with a grain of salt because I've spent most of this year gestating, so we've been gifted board books and I'd rather mark them as read than TBR in my spreadsheet. All told, I tagged 19 books as kids (different from Middle Grade, which was 8) making up 16% of reads.
Let's review my goals listed at the end of 2021 for this year:
-actually getting to the Little House reread. I got as far as putting the first book on my nightstand so, y'know, it'll happen.
-clear some books out of Currently Reading (as in, pick them up again and finish them). I recognize that it's perfectly ok to DNF something, but I'm a completionist and for the most part I'm still interested in these.
-continue to read more shelf, in particular the large amounts of sci-fi my husband added/adds to our home library. He really wants me to get through more Discworld in particular.
-utilize ebooks more
I... did none of these, apparently. I DID read Little House in the Big Woods, but did not close out those dangling books (may have read a little bit more of The Wheel of Time Companion and Learning Perl but nothing substantial). I read 29 shelf books last year and only 15 this year (also taking up a smaller % of completed as well). I was about equivalent on ebooks and audiobooks from last year too. However, I'm proud to say that Erica and I successfully launched The Bière Library Storytime Book Club at her restaurant, with a group of regulars who periodically drop in. Very casual book club- more like an excuse to hang out and talk about books, but we've also had some very good conversations too! My favorite pick is probably still Crying in H Mart which was a reread for me, and what we launched with.
Making a tiny human changed the trajectory of my reads. A beloved local bookstore closed its location in my town in February (the owner was retiring, and new owners wanted to consolidate to one store... and the larger one was next town over) so I picked up a ton of books for cheap and figured this would be the year of going through those. I was going to do a full Little House reread as an adult, recontextualizing beloved childhood memories with the knowledge of Rose Wilder Lane's editorial hand in American mythmaking. I continued with my Wheel of Time reread, though I really only got through books six and seven this year when I used to have a faster pace. There's no deadline on a reread though, so I can continue my leisurely pace there. My Mistborn reread needs to pick up, though, as dodging The Lost Metal spoilers in discussion areas will grow more difficult after the initial honeymoon period where people are spoiler-conscious in groups!
In May, we got a positive pregnancy test and I needed to learn about birth, the newborn phase, and parenting. There's a LOT of opinions out there, so I turned to my library for many with a couple purchases for things I figured I'd want to reference, such as Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom is Wrong - and What You Really Need to Know or Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy. Conventional wisdom says not to announce publicly until you reach the end of first trimester (ostensibly so you don't need to also make a public announcement about a miscarriage should that happen), so I kept track of these reads on my spreadsheet before porting over to GR after we told friends and family. I still need to make the pivot from birth books to parenting- you can see that a little bit with more recent reads like Raising Antiracist Children: A Practical Parenting Guide
I have no idea what 2023 will look like as a new parent. I'm told the early months are going to be ripe for getting through shows as I'll be awake so often, so this might also be prime time for audiobooks. Husband said I should read N.K. Jemisin's The Broken Earth trilogy BEFORE baby arrives but unless I get to that within two weeks, that seems... iffy. So, I'll probably just hit renew on my 2021 goals. I did read fewer shelf books because I read substantially more library books- 56% of my reads were library, mostly because I figured pregnancy is a temporary status and I could check out relevant books as needed, rather than buying and keeping them on my shelf. Note from February 2023 Danielle- lol yeah reading pace slowed SIGNIFICANTLY but audio does seem to be a potential solution.
Some series goals:
- wrap up Bridgerton, Grishaverse, Mistborn reread, and the Greenbone trilogy (if I push, I could finish Jade War today but I think I have 5 hours left, and I don't like speeding up audiobooks). n.b. I did finish Jade War… on January 3rd. I HAVE finished Grishaverse!
- read the Sanderson secret projects in a timely fashion (as a reminder to Kickstarter backers, Secret Project #1 releases at midnight Mountain Time tonight for ebook/audio!) Also got through Tress of the Emerald Sea within days- let me know if you want to chat about what’s basically a giant kickstarter book club!
- get through more Discworld.
- catch up on Skyward. I own Starsight and Cytonic, and it should be doable to finish by the time Defiant releases in the fall.
Very Sanderson heavy, so I think going through shelf purchases should help diversify the genre and authors read. If I have time, ha.