2022 Reading Challenges Quarterly Update: No 1

In the vein of holding myself accountable (but moreso, to kick myself into gear), I’m sharing a check-in post! Most specifically, checking in on my 2022 Reading Challenges progress, which encompasses both overarching reading goals and blogging challenges I’ve joined this year. I’ll be doing this check in once a quarter (so, four check-in in total), to remind me I have goals! That I’d like to complete!

So, how am I doing so far? Let’s find out.

Main Goals

As a refresher, to reference my original post detailing my reading goals for the year, please see below:

• Regularly read (which ideally means during lunch breaks and every day before bed)
• Read 50 books
• Aim for one antiracist, one non-fiction and one potential comp book for WIP a month
• Continue to read diversely

Main Goal Check In

So, we’re three months into 2022 (!!). Based on the goals above, to be on target, I should have:

• Read 12 books (4 per month ~ 50 per year)
• Out of those 12, at least 3 should have been anti-racist books, 3 non-fiction and 3 comp books, with 3 reads for fun and at least 6 diverse

Am I on track?

Hahahaha.

No.

Currently, I have read 4 books, with 3 more in-progress. Of those four books, all of them have been diverse reads (with three by BIPOC authors featuring BIPOC characters and one by a queer author featuring queer characters). So, I am very proud of that and believe that should be acknowledged!

Out of what is currently being read, I’ve finally started working towards my other goals: I’m currently reading So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo, my first anti-racist read of the year. Viking Age by Kirsten Wolf is my first non-fiction read geared towards research for my BLOOD PRICE WIP. And Hall of Smoke by H.M. Long is my first potential comparative title for BLOOD PRICE.

Next Three Months

So, focusing on the next three months, I want to narrow in a little bit more. I think my overarching goals are a bit ambitious, on top of everything else. While I’m still too stubborn to change what I made at the beginning of the year, I want to be initial for April, May and June.

My goals to complete by the next quarterly update are:

• Two anti-racist books
• Two research books
• Two potential comp books
• One non-fiction mental health book

So, that’s seven books right there. I’d like to try and read the same amount of fiction books for fun as I do for the above, so that’s 14 books in three months. Out of those seven reads for me, I’d like two to be overdue ARCs, at least two romance and at least five diverse reads.

Ah, ambition, my old friend.

Reading Challenges

So, we didn’t do particularly great, numbers wise, for the first part of my 2022 reading challenges update. Let’s see if perhaps my specific challenges might have faired any better?

2022 Discussion Challenge

Hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight

• Goal: 24 discussion posts
• Target Quarter Goal: 6 discussion posts
• Current Status: 8 discussion posts (ahead by 2 posts!)

Ahhh, I’m so excited about this! It has been really wonderful to write so many discussion posts this year already. Of course, 90% of this is thanks to the Let’s Talk Bookish discussion series, hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books and Dani @ The Literary Lion.

If you’re not already reading the posts from this series across all the bloggers who participate, I highly recommend you do. It’s fantastic!

The Pondathon II

Hosted by CW, Joce and Skye @ The Quiet Pond

• Goal: 50 books
• Target Quarter Goal: 12 books
• Current Status: 4 books (behind by 8 books)

Let’s not talk about the status of how behind I am and instead look at how pretty my garden looks (all artwork created by the amazingly talented CW).

While unfortunately, the Quiet Pond is closing it’s doors at the end of June, so this challenge is no longer year long, I’m very excited to see how much more I can fill up this garden!

Support Book Bloggers Challenge

Hosted by Briana @ Pages Unbound

Goal: Complete every challenge
Target Quarter Goal: 3 challenges
Current Status: 3 challenges (on target)

This has been so fun to complete. I’ve written two special posts for this: one highlighting 10 bloggers I adore and another highlighting 10 new bloggers I’m so excited to support! I’ve also completed leaving 10 comments on book blogs. This is something I regularly do when I’m blog hopping, so I didn’t bother it track it, as it’s a practice I already enjoy.

In Sum

So, all in all, with my first quarterly 2022 Reading Challenges update, I think I did okay. I’m nowhere near close to where I want to be, reading wise (as evident from my latest discussion post). Yet, I’m proud of how diverse my limited reads have been. I’ve also done a great job keeping up with writing discussion posts, while really enjoying supporting other bloggers.

For next quarter’s update, I hope to share even more reading progress with you all. Until then, I hope you’re taking care of yourself, of others and get to read good books.

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