Happy New Year everyone! If feels like 2023 has flown by, so much so that I haven’t had enough time to sit down and decide how I want to tackle my reading goals for 2024. I have tried many different ways of tracking my reads, from Goodreads to writing reviews in old diaries, and I have started to shift from a numbers goals to something akin to quality and relevance over quantity. Let me explain.

I see all over Instagram reading goals in people’s bios. It’s easy, right? Put down the number of books you want to read by the end of the year and update the number with every book you finish. My issues with it are that I never knew what to do about DNFs and I started fixating on the number instead of simply reading because I want to read. I’d DNF a book in March and not count it because I have nine months of reading to make up for the one book I DNFed. I’d DNF in July and question whether or not reading 150 pages of a 270 page book is enough to count it as read. Then I’d try do something like my October book-a-day and burn myself out as I’m reading at least 45 books in preparation for it across September and October and DNFing books or simply skipping them because I have no interest in them. As much as that October posting helped me get used to writing reviews and uploading to this blog, I can tell that the quality of the posts deteriorated by the end of the month and I genuinely can’t tell you how long it took to get out of the reading slump it put me in.

So, reading goal number one – no reading target.

I don’t want my eye to constantly catch those numbers every time I look at my posts. I also don’t want to dig myself into the hole of reading books, meeting that reasonable pick in the 60s or so, and then making a ghost number and forcing myself to reach that number instead of appreciating the fact I hit my goal. It almost becomes meaningless in a way reaching your target because the subconscious comparison to other readers makes me feel like my goal was achieved to easily, that it was undershooting what I could read. Away with targets in 2024. Instead, I will take up monthly reading reviews and evaluate my stats through a more holistic view – what genre did I read most this month? What books did I start picking up this month? How many books did I give five stars? By taking the reading target out, I think I will be a lot happier with my reading and how I view reading in 2024.

On the topic of what genres I read, I have made some realisations. As a New Zealander, I am super excited for and proud of our authors for sharing our stories and getting the New Zealand perspective heard. Representation is key, in my eyes, to understanding everyone in the room. To share stories and experiences is to connect with one another and I think that it’s extremely important to acknowledge those unlike ourselves and hear their side of life. I have been neglecting my Kiwi authors, picking up YA Fantasies and Historical Fiction Murder Mysteries set in Great Britain instead of bringing my attention to the tales within my home.

So, reading goal number two – read more New Zealand authors and New Zealand stories.

This may be something you want to do but modified to your background, to your country’s authors and the stories of your people. It’s nice reading for escapism but I think reading to understand what is very real in our world is more rewarding and enlightening. I plan to read at least one Kiwi author a month, aiming for two or three, so that I’m being reminded of the voices of those around me. This is also for me to see what kind of books are getting published and selected for prises in New Zealand so that I can reconsider my work and make the adjustments needed for a worthy competition submission.

Finally, I have my want to expand the genres I read. My October book-a-day brought me some great names and titles that I have either requested already or noted down for when there is a lull in my library reading. Before then, my reading was one of two things – Fantasy or Historical Fiction. I still love those genres but linking back to my earlier point of quality or quantity, I want to read more and read because of the book’s interest and not because it’s a popular book over social media. I often fell into the trap of reading a book because of what social media promised of it, but then finding out that a fundamental part of the story is not for me. It’s not to say those books are bad, but they aren’t suited for me, I am not the target audience and I should be looking for other books.

So, reading goal number three – diversify the reading list.

I already have NZ Fiction noted down, but I want my monthly reading list to be made up of an array of genres like Thriller, Adult Fantasy, Modern Historical Fiction, YA Fiction, Sci-Fi, YA Fantasy and so on. I know that if I read too many of the same genre at once I get burnt out and I want to prevent that from happening by having my reading each month be as varied as possible. I cannot control how or when library books come in, but by making sure that the requests contain multiple different kinds of stories and themes that will help a lot.

So, to summarise, I plan to eliminate my reading target, read more New Zealand stories, and expand my reading to encompass more genres. It sounds simple and that gives me a good feeling because it means it’s easy to implement. I’m excited to see what 2024 will bring and what new releases will spark my interest – maybe I’ll even find some forever favourites along the way.