2023 Reading Goals and Challenges: Mid-Point Check-In

Hello, loves! And welcome back to the blog! Today, I am doing a (about a month overdue, oops) 2023 Reading Goals and Challenges check-in! I made a few goals at the beginning of the year and wanted to see how I’m doing with them. If my Mid-Year tag was anything to go off of, I already have an idea, but let’s dive in and find out. 😅

2023 Reading Goals and Challenges Recap

So, if you want to read the goals in full, you can check out two posts: here and here. That’ll give you a much deeper dive as to what the bright-eyed, hopeful youth at the turn of a new year thought she could accomplish. Of course, that was before the first half of 2023 was one of the hardest years mentally, but I hadn’t fully grasped that, yet.

But, for a quick rundown, here’s the rough goals I had:

• Read 60 books
• Reach the Completionist tier and ARCrastinator tiers in Kal’s Project Backlist Challenge
• Earn at least one badge from Ari and Alexi @ Bookish Valhalla‘s Backlist Reads Challenge
• Complete my priority series reads, inspired by Caitlin @ Realms of My Mind
• Hit the Terrifically Talkative tier in Nicole @ Feed Your Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight‘s Discussion challenge

So, as you can see, I had a lot of goals! How am I doing in them?

Current Status

Overall Reads

So, as of the time of this post going live, I have read 15 books (16 if you count one DNF), with two more books in progress currently, setting my total to 18 reads (attempted, completed or in-progress). Or, roughly 25% done with my original goal of 60 books.

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Only “19 books before I’m back on track,” which is only, you know, more than what I’ve read in six months so far.

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I’m stubborn, so I’m not changing that goal, but I don’t think I’m going to complete it, to be honest. I’d like to! And, perhaps I might get closer, now that I have a new job and my mental health is improving. I guess we’ll see in December!

Kal’s Project Backlist

So, for Kal’s Project Backlist Challenge, I wanted to earn two badges:

• Completionist: Reach an 80% read rate for your owned books
• ARCrastinator: Clear overdue ARC list

As I discussed in my original post, my numbers at the start of the year were:

• Owned books: 290
• Read: 180
• Percentage read: 61%

Currently, my numbers look like this:

• Owned books: 321
• Read: 195
• Percentage read: 60.75%

Yes, I dropped down a percentage point, due to getting some new ARCs and then buying a few books this year, to boot. Though I have caught up on a few ARCs (8 of them), I am also woefully, woefully behind.

Bookish Valhalla’s Backlist Reads

For the Bookish Valhalla’s challenge, the goal is to read backlist books, i.e., any books published before 2023. So, I’ve read a couple books that have come out this year, making it a bit harder to hit 10/12 prompts with older books when I’ve already read 15 so far.

BUT, I updated my progress today and it looks like I’m at 6/12 books! For the second half of the year, I’ll need to read books that fall into these prompts:

• A Quiet Longing
• Sentient Technology
• Unlikely Heroes
• Dark Academia Vibes
• Haunts of the Living
• Gunpowder Plots

I think this is actually quiet doable!!

Series Challenge

So, in my series challenge, I had 12 priority series I really wanted to finish this year (you can see them here). Out of those 12, I have completed 3 of them: The Drowning Empire by Andrea Stewart, The Magic of the Lost by C.L. Clark and The Five Penalties by Marina Lostsetter. The latter two, I’ve caught up on what is published so far (after I finish my current read, that is).

So, 3/12 isn’t too awful…right? 😅 Perhaps if it didn’t mean that, out of the other 9 series, that still comprises of, like, over thirty books. (Some of them are long romance series, okay?)

Discussion Posts

For my discussion posts, I wanted to hit the “Terrifically Talkative” tier, or 31-40 discussion posts this year. So far, I’ve written 8. So, I’ve definitely written some, but considering I’m only at tier one when I want to be at tier four.

*collapses into why do I have a day job*

Second Half of the Year Goals

So, I think we’ve learned two things, so far. One: I am terribly ambitious when I make my goals. And two: I have a long way to go, for most of these. With that in mind, here’s some smaller goals I’d like to try and achieve, for the final five months of 2023!

Overall Reads

So, if I wanted to reach my original goal of 60 books this year, I’d need to read nine books every month, starting in August, to read 45 books. That just…is so not realistic for me. 😅

I would like to try and get back to reading a book a week, though. So, 20 books for the last five months.

Second Half Goal: Read four books a month (i.e., one book a week), reading 37 books this year.

Kal’s Project Backlist

To hit 80% books read that I own, I’d have to read 64 more books this year and acquire NO OTHERS. Hahahahahahahaha. So, I think I’m going to have to take away the goal of Completionist, as much as I would have loved to hit it.

However, I am on track with some other tiers a bit more organically: Committed Reader (read an owned book a month) and making progress on the overdue ARC list. So, perhaps I’ll focus on those a bit more!

Second Half Goal: Get overdue ARCs to 70% caught up and meet the reading goals above

Bookish Valhalla’s Backlist Reads

Since I need to hit at least four more prompts with 2022 or older backlist reads to complete this challenge, I think I am going to make this a priority! I think I’ll try to focus on the following four:

• A Quiet Longing
• Sentient Technology
• Unlikely Heroes
• Gunpowder Plots

If I get the Dark Academia Vibes and Haunts of the Living, cool! But I think the above four match a bit more to my usual reading palette.

Second Half Goal: Complete four more prompts

Series Challenge

So, obviously, I don’t think I’m going to hit all of my priority series. Even though I could technically complete them (since the remaining books comes out to roughly the same amount of books I hope to read the rest of the year); I’m too much of a mood reader.

Still, I do have a few series I really, really hope to complete this year:

• The Protectorate by Megan E. O’Keefe
• Regency Fairy Tales by Olivia Atwater
• Swords and Fire by Melissa Caurso
• Mages of the Wheel by J.D. Evans

We’re going to ignore that only one of these series were on my original priority list from the start of the year.

Second Half Goal: Complete at least three more series

Discussion Posts

I don’t think, since I’m going to try and cut back on blogging a bit to make room for writing and rest, that hitting 31 discussion posts is realistic. However, discussion posts are some of my favorite to write (and read!), so I do hope to write at least 1-2 more a month. Doing so would be 5-10 more posts, which would put me at the Creative Conversationalist (11-20) tier. I may push myself to try and get 21 by the end of the year, though…

Second Half Goal: hit the Creative Conversationalist tier

In Sum

My goodness, did that turn into a nice long post with stats and more stats. I really enjoyed writing it, so I hope you enjoyed reading it, too. Even though my mid-year check-in for my 2023 Reading Goals and Challenges wasn’t anywhere near where I wanted them to be, I am excited about the prospect of what the next five months will bring.

Hopefully, lots of good books.

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