Let's Get Literate! Adventures in Accessible Reading Goals

[renay]

In 2017, I promised myself: realistic and achievable reading goals. I started small, but of course I spiraled out of control once the end of January rolled around, because I'm weak. These were my final goals (100%, no more goals, I am at Max Reading Goals, and I'm gonna stick to it because I know Ira and Jenny will give me Looks):

1. Read 110 items.
2. Read 30 new women writers.
3. Read 10 nonfiction titles.
4. Space Opera Challenge: read 15 titles.
5. Read 10 books I own purchased before January 1, 2017.
6. Read 5% of my anticipated 2017 titles.

I use goals because I consider reading my main form of non-stressful entertainment, but I very easily fall into bad habits. Since I also treat reading like continuing education (sob, I would love to go back and finish my degree, damn you capitalism) having goals keeps me intellectually engaged with the form my reading takes. This way I'm not reading 89 books by white men and 3 books by anyone else all year. I'm doing great; it helps that several of my challenges overlap, too.

Read 110 items

According to Goodreads, I'm at 74/110, or 67%. That's pretty boss for it being May. This is largely because of my One Piece readalong. I'm reading the omnibus collections that compile three volumes in one. I'm only reading one volume at a time, because it's hard to do recaps/context on the massive collections—too much happens. But even without One Piece, I would still have 47/110, which is nothing to sneeze at this early in the year. Honestly, reading anything is good, any point in the year. We're busy people. Celebrate all your books! /disclaimer

Read 30 new women writers

I did this last year with a much higher goal: 100 (which I later changed to 50 after assessing my time). This year I decided to give myself a break (YES I KNOW) and set the goal at 30. I'm at 15/30, which I was shocked by when I confirmed my stats. It's not even June yet and I'm halfway done with this goal. SELF HIGH FIVE. The secondary part of this goal is to focus on women of color, and that's going well, too. My biggest problem with this challenge is that I keep discovering women writers I like, but they've written deep series and I'm tempted dive in for weeks at a time. On the plus side, now that I realize I'm actually ahead on this goal I can indulge in some of those series. ♥

Read 10 nonfiction titles

I got serious about my sleep hygiene again and started my habit of reading nonfiction for an hour each night before bed. Turns out, that means that the pages add up quick. My goal was for 10 and I have read 10! This goal is complete. I only DNFed one book after reading half of it. I'm amazed at myself. It's May. I'll still be reading nonfiction; maybe this year I'll get to have a legit Favorite Nonfiction section in my end of year wrap up.

Space Opera Challenge: read 15 titles

Alas, this is a goal where I fell down. I'm at 4/15. But! All is not lost. There are some other great space operas coming out later this year and I have several on my shelf, too. I can do it! \o/

Read 10 books I own purchased before January 1, 2017

...oops. 1/10, which is a shameful showing. I did this challenge specifically because I was caught up in the newness bug, the hype machine, the publicity gauntlet—whatever you call it, I was trapped. And I still am! I have the data the prove it on my TBR list. After I finish my last three library books (two in a series, one nonfiction), I'm switching over to my own titles. I'm aiming for improvement at mid-year.

Read 5% of my anticipated 2017 titles

This one is a goal I can't really assess until December, because the total number of books will go up over the year. I count "anticipated titles" as books I've included in a list of upcoming titles, talking about how EXCITED I am. There's no way I'm not doing more anticipated books posts in the summer/fall! I'M A SUCKER. I'm at 5/38 so far, although I DNFed one of them. Not bad considering my eyes are bigger than my available free time.

2017 Q1: Favorite Books

My highest rated books this quarter were all over the place. But they're all great. I'm already having an excellent literary year.

• Home by Nnedi Okorafor
• Everfair by Nisi Shawl
• You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson
• White Tears by Hari Kunzru
• Tears We Cannot Stop by Michael Eric Dyson
• One Piece by Eiichirō Oda
• Six Wakes by Mur Laffery
• Space Battle Lunchtime by Natalie Riess
• The Lawrence Browne Affair by Cat Sebastian
• The Soldier's Scoundrel by Cat Sebastian

• Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
• Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa Dare
• Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
• The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
• A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner
• Get Your Sh*t Together by Sarah Knight
• Sunshine by Robin McKinley (reread)
• The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi
• The Tetris Effect by Dan Ackerman
• Revenger by Alastair Reynolds

Comments

[novin_ha]

These are great reading goals and I love your list! My SO has been bugging me to get through Any Duchess Will Do so I can read Do You Want to Start a Scandal, she loved it so much.

I've been telling myself I should do a quarterly update of my own reading goals, but now I'm a month late... But now I feel motivated by your list and will get down to posting it on my DW today \o/

[renay]

I...will admit I did not read Any Duchess Will Do first! But it held up for me regardless. :D It was lovely.

I am also a month late, but refuses to let it stop me! I'm happy you'll be joining me on this adventure of "I DO WHAT I WANT"; it's extremely freeing. :D :D

[novin_ha]

Oh, sure, they are all pretty much stand-alones, but since I bought the whole bundle 1-4 for cheap after I'd already bought 5 (because it's also part of Castles Ever After continuity, which I *have* read), I'm trying to read Spindle Cove in order! SO says Do You Want to Start a Scandal is the best, but she also loved 2 & 4.

I posted my thing! And now I already have an idea for another list post.

I would love to read more of your thoughts on Space Opera btw. Like, which ones have you read so far this year (I mean, I know about Scalzi XD). Which ones did you like best (other than Scalzi). Which ones are you thinking about reading next. Any and all of these :D

(Your list of highest-rated ones is very long btw, clearly a good reading quarter and a bit XD)

[3rdragon]

I would be happy to hear more about your actual or intended space opera reading, too.

[renay]

I will probably be writing something up about it soon. :D

[renay]

I have only just started getting back into romance via recs from kaytaylorrea and some other friends, and Tessa Dare was very high on the list. She must me popular because even my rural library has holds for her books. XD

I might write about my space opera challenge more officially, since I come at space opera from a different direction than books. :D

(Every quarter is going to have a huge list, but at the end of the year it's going to be agony cutting them up to make my 2017 favorites. Yikes.)

[novin_ha]

Tessa Dare is one of my favourite romance writers, too, though it took me a while to get into her writing (my first encounter was with an early novella and I didn't like it). My favourites are Courtney Milan and Sherry Thomas, but I've gone through their entire backlists :(

By the way, I read Do You Want to Start a Scandal in a day and a half. It was great.

I'm looking forward to the space opera post then!

[mayakittenreads]

Woo! Go Renay!

I'm doing okay on my own reading goals. 38/95 overall. For my aim to read more items by non white authors that last year (when I read 4) I've read 2 so far, and to make sure I read items with LGBTI+ protagonists (no numeric goal as I've not tracked it before) I have also read 2. I don't have a specific female author target because I have always been women writer heavy.

I only realised at the beginning of last year how overly white my list was and this year how straight so yeah, very small targets but aiming for improvements every year.

[renay]

Thanks! :D

Yeah, in the genres I like outside of SF I was always good at reading women, but when I got back into SF in the mid aughts the internet and social media were so different. Finding books I wanted to read was harder because I didn't know where to start. Even now my local library is only just getting good about ordering more women writers in SF.

Reading nonwhite authors is a fun goal; I'm really glad I focus on it because I've found some excellent new authors that way that I would have never tried if I hadn't been on the look out for them to add to my TBR.

[mayakittenreads]

I've definitely found some brilliant nonwhite authors in the last couple of years, even if it hasn't been numerous yet - Nnedi Okorafor, plus some local Indigenous Australian writers in YA author Ambelin Kwaymullina & the poet Oodgeroo.

[calissa]

Nice work on the reading goals! You are doing a great job.

You say there'll be no more reading goals, but what about the Hugo Awards? Are you attempting to read through the shortlist?