2023 Reading Goals

Hello Everyone,

It’s that time of the year where most of us excitedly jot down our new year resolutions. Like every year, this year too I have a big list of goals. Unsurprisingly, most of the goals are reading related. So, when I saw that this week’s Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl now) topic is reading goals of 2023, I thought it’s a perfect time to post my bookish goals. Here are my reading goals for 2023 –

1.    Read 52 Books

Last year I set myself a goal of reading 100 books. Though I managed to surpass the goal by reading 128 books, I realized that I was picking up shorter books to achieve my goal. So, this year I am going back to setting myself a goal of 52 books. Reading 1 book per week doesn’t seem like a daunting task and will give me enough time to get through some of the chunky books sitting on my shelf. Any number above 52 will be a bonus.

2.    Write a Review for Every Book I Read

I keep a track of every book I read on Goodreads and give it a star rating. But unfortunately, I have realized that I don’t remember why I rated certain books a certain way. The latest reads are fresher in my mind but books I read in the beginning of the year are slowly fading away. Writing a review for every book will help me deal with this issue.

3.    Keep a Reading Journal

This year I am also keeping a physical reading journal where I hope to meticulously track my reading stats. This will also be a place where I write down my rough thoughts before writing a fair review. I am enjoying the process of setting up a journal. So, let’s see how this goes.

4.    Read 1 Classic a Month

I enjoy reading classics but off late they have taken a backseat. But I want to change that and read at least one classic a month. I have 20 odd classics I want to get to asap, let’s see how many of these I manage to read.

5.    Read 1 Non-Fiction Book a Month

There was a time when I would name Non-Fiction as my least favorite genre. I assumed non-fiction was dry, dull and boring. Oh, how wrong I was. Once I discovered non-fiction related to nature, I realized how interesting and fascinating non-fiction truly is. So, this year I want to explore more books in my new found love.

6.    Read One Telugu and One Hindi Book

English is not my first language yet this is the language I am most comfortable reading and writing in. I don’t mind that but what irks me is that I no longer am comfortable reading or writing in Telugu and Hindi. I want to change that. I can’t forget my own mother tongue.

7.    Read 12 Books From 12 Countries

I think it was in 2021, when I was re-organizing my bookshelves as I was stuck at home, I realized that my shelves lacked diversity. More than 80% of my books were either American or British. Hardly any books from any other countries, including my own. That’s when I decided to take on the challenge of reading around the world. One day I hope to read a book from every country in the world but for now my goal is to read literature from 12 countries I haven’t read before.

8.    Read 12 Books by Indian Authors

As I said previously, I wasn’t reading enough from my own country. In fact, my Indian books occupied a miniscule one shelf on my 8 book cases… that should give you a rough idea of how much I ignored Indian Lit. So, I have decided to pick up more Indian books this year.

9.    Read 12 Translated Books

Another bid to de-colonize my shelves and read more diversely is to read 12 translated books from around the world and also India. Manga will not count towards this goal though.

10.    Read at least 30 Books I Already Own

Okay, moment of truth… I currently own over 700 unread books. Yes, you read that correctly. So, reading 30 of those will not even make a dent in my TBR pile but I need to start somewhere… right? So, I hope to read at least some of the books I already own this year.

Other than these, I also have a couple of reading challenges like Read Harder Challenge, Pop-Sugar Challenge, ATY Reading Challenge and Buzzwordathon 2023 Challenge I hope to complete.

What are your reading goals for this year? Let’s chat in the comments.