Well, it's time to take a look at my reading goals for 2018 and see how I did. I'm currently working on next year's goals, which mirror these closely. I've finally found a set of goals that makes sense for me and helps me accomplish my larger goals when it comes to my reading, things like "reading current"; reading high-profile books while they're still high-profile; and reading a variety of genres and "textures," meaning a variety of long and short books, classics, visual books, books about other cultures, and books on different media (print, electronic, and audio). Here's how it all broke down.
In 2018, I read a total of 181 books, 83 nonfiction, 77 fiction, and 21 poetry. I read 22 books on Kindle and listened to 59. I also read 66 picture books.
1.
Re-read Pride and Prejudice.
Completed:
May 5
I didn't love this book nearly as much on re-reading it, which is so unfortunate, because it had been one of my favorite books.
2.
Begin Prose Works by Mary Baker Eddy. Finish if possible.
Big fat fail. I didn't realize just how big this book was, and when I decided it would be just too uncomfortable to force it, instead of revising the plan, I abandoned it altogether. I kind of oppose making reading goals of religious material, as religious study is probably best done out of inspiration rather than obligation, so I don't feel terrible, just lazy.
3. Read
50 books published in 2017 and 2018.
Completed:
July 14
I ended up finishing 86 books published in 2017 and 2018. This was a good goal, and though 50 seemed like an intimidating number, it really wasn't once I got started. This goal forced me to clean up my TBR and also to not "save" books for later. This was one of my favorite goals, and I'll be using it again next year.
4. Read
30 modern classics or high-profile books.
Completed:
June 7
I started this goal in July of 2017, so I had almost a year and a half to finish it. I ended up reading 50 books, some of my favorites being: The Dry, Little Fires Everywhere, Hillbilly Elegy, In the Woods, The President Is Missing, and The Snow Child.
5. Read
10 chunksters.
Completed:
April 10
I read 25 chunksters (~400 pages or more) this year, up from 16 last year. Favorites include: My Lady Jane; Bunny Mellon; Jackie, Janet & Lee (about Jackie O., her mother, and her sister ); Destiny and Power (about George H.W. Bush); Us Against You (Fredrik Backman); True Compass (Ted Kennedy); To the Bright Edge of the World; In the Woods (Tana French); Becoming (Michelle Obama); and The Reckoning (John Grisham).
6. Re-read
5 books.
Completed:
June 14
I re-read nine books this year. Some of them stood up to re-reading, and some didn't. I still loved Angela's Ashes and Good Poems: American Places. Present over Perfect (Shauna Niequist) and Writing the Australian Crawl (William Stafford) lost something over time. And a book from childhood, Where the Red Fern Grows, was absolutely wonderful.
Completed:
March 27
Wa-hoo for me! I blew this goal out of the water, abandoning at least 16 books (it's hard to give an exact count, because I start a lot of things on Kindle but don't get very far, so at what point does a book count?). This became my most important goal of the year, I think. I added it to my list as part lark and part experiment, and it became invaluable to me and saved me much anguish. I often abandoned a book not because it was bad or poorly written, but because I just didn't enjoy it. Some folks have to give themselves permission to jettison what they don't enjoy, I guess. I abandoned all kinds of things, some big name books (12 Rules for Life), some classics (My Man Jeeves and Howards End), some informative (Astrophysics for People in a Hurry and The Bride Price) and some that I'd been looking forward to (Lady Bird and Lyndon). All-in-all, this goal is one I'd recommend to anyone who struggles with the guilt of putting down a perfectly good book if it doesn't satisfy them.
8. Read
1,000 poems.
Completed: unsure
I read over 2,000 poems this year, much less than last year, but still double my goal. Read more about my poetry reading here.
9. Read
100 books.
Completed:
July 22
I finished out the year with 181 books under my belt. At times it almost felt like too much. While I never force myself to read (it helps to have five to seven books going at any one time), there were times when I wondered if I was having too much of a good thing.
10.
Read 50 picture books.
Completed:
October 1
While I met my goal with 66 picture books read, I didn't enjoy this goal much this year. Picture books are just getting too much into identity politics, and it's harder to just find a fun book for little kids that doesn't push an agenda. I just didn't find a lot that interested me or that I enjoyed. My top 12 post can be found here.
As you can see, I finished most of my goals by mid-year, the earliest completed in March (abandon 5 books), and the last completed October 1 (read 50 picture books). So I guess I should up my goal numbers for next year, but I'm not sure I will. These numbers feel reasonable, and that seems more important right now than impressively large numbers.
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