It’s a new month of a new year, and now a new week on top of it, and I just can’t keep up. I would love to be posting a reading review right now to catch you up on my December books, but to be brutally honest, I don’t remember anything about the 9 books I read! December was a blur, I read anything that kept me engaged, which were mostly short novellas that I could read in one sitting.
December Reads
Of the books I read in December, I really would only recommend these:
2022 Reading Recap
Looking through the books I read in 2022 was a test of my memory (painfully weak). Some books I couldn’t even remember why I loved them. I am a firm believer in rating a book how you feel in the moment and never changing it, so I decided to just pick out the ones that stuck with me.
Books that made my heart soar!
These were my top books for the year. 5 Stars and so many heart eyes!
Books I Loved!
These books gave me a great reading experience! Rated 4 to 5 stars!
2023 Releases I have my eye on
Some beloved authors and some new ones that I hope will be winners!
Reading Goals for 2023
My goals for 2023 are simple. I want to read quality over quantity – I lowered my Goodreads goal this year to 24, this way I can choose some beefier books and not feel “behind”. I want to be intentional with my reading choices – more books from my shelves that I’ve already paid for and try to buy less. I want to read more books that my friends loved – I used to take my real life friends’ recommendations as gold, and then I started relying on online sources more. This year I’m going back to basics and trusting when my friends say, “Read this book!!!” I’m also trying out a bookish spreadsheet to track my reading tendencies and a reading journal to dive deeper into the books I read.
While my girl Becca has come up with an infinite list of things to try for her 2023 reading life, I have to honor my natural tendencies and rely on my mood. I notice when I get too rigid or structured in my goals, I tend to freeze up and read nothing instead of making progress.
A couple of weeks ago I decided to score all of the books on my shelf with three numbers. 3 – books I really want to read this year (priority), 2 – books that I think sound really interesting or were recommended to me and I would really like to read soon (this year or next), 1 – books that I still want to read, but am okay with them waiting for the right time (years?!). This process helped me weed out a stack of books that I couldn’t rate at all. And the priority books now have a shelf of their own, so that I can see them and work toward reading them first. My goal is to only purchase books this year that I would score as a 3, but used book sales are my downfall #sorrynotsorry.
Do you have any reading goals for this year?
Becca @ Life’s A Pearl
So many beautiful book covers 😍 I feel like next year will be the year for bright pink and red covers lol.
I love your new rating system for the books you own and that the priority ones have their own shelf. I’m excited to hear if that helps you reach for them more!
ASHLEY
I thought the same thing! 2022 felt like all blue covers, so pink and red are welcome here. Although I personally wish all books were purple. Not sure why. Haha. I hope the prioritizing works too, but first we have to get through The Winners 😰