Let’s Talk Bookish – Reading Wrap-Up

Aria @ Book Nook Bits is the new host for Let’s Talk Bookish! If you aren’t following her yet, good check out her blog and give her a follow!

 January 5: 2023 Reading Wrap-Up

Prompts: Happy New Year! How many books did you read in 2023? What were some of your favorites? Least favorites? Did you meet your reading goals for the year? What do you want to continue in 2024? Any reading-related changes you’re planning to make?

Welcome to a new year of LTB here at DTRH, everyone! It’s the first Friday of January and it’s time for a new topic. Although I did do a mini-reflection last week, that doesn’t stop me from going through some of these more concrete questions here in today’s prompt!

I think I read about 40 books last year in 2023, and I really ramped it up at the end. There were, as usual, periods of no reading and periods of binge-reading. But overall I think it was a great time. I don’t want to pressure myself too much to read when I have too many non-pleasure (read: work and school) readings to do already, just to make sure I keep the fun in reading, for which I think I have so far been successful!

Some of my favourites included The Only One Left, Babel, and The Ivory Key series. Many of these were surprising finds, but definitely gave me new hope into each of their genres. I was beginning to think that my standards have become too high, but nope, books can definitely still hit the mark, I just have the find the right book. That’s a relief for sure. As for least favourites…well, no need to bash those authors. I’d rather just forget them.

My goal was set around only 30, so I certainly met that goal! I have a friend who has made it a new goal to be more intentional with their reading, rather than just to meet a certain number. So their goal is to read from certain genres and certain authors, all to intentionally create a list for their goal. While I don’t think I will be doing something so concrete, I think I also want to err on the side of reading things that will matter to me, rather than just reading to fill the time or to reach a book count.

I’d definitely love to slip in a few more fantasies if I can, though I’m usually scared to start them as they tend to be longer. But other than that, I think I’ll be sticking to the regular scheduled programming, and hopefully get a chance to read more ARCs this year to review!

What are all your plans for this year? Sticking to the same old or trying something different? Let me know in the comments below!