I set myself a number of bookish goals for 2023 and it’s time to see how I got on. Goals completed in full are shown in green, goals more than half completed are shown in orange and goals less than half completed are shown in red.
- Achieve my Goodreads target of reading 120 books – I fell just five books short of my target
- Read at least 50 books that have been in my TBR pile for longer than two years, i.e. they were acquired prior to 1st January 2021 – I only managed 23
- Attend Henley Literary Festival and, if possible, at least one other literary festival in person – I attended several events at Henley Literary Festival, I attended the Women’s Prize Live event and I went to one event at Falmouth Books Festival
- Take part in – and complete – the following reading challenges: When Are You Reading? Challenge 2023, What’s in a Name Challenge 2023, 20 Books of Summer, Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2023 – I completed three out of the four challenges, failing once again on the 20 Books of Summer challenge
- Read all the books on the Walter Scott Prize 2023 shortlist – if possible, on the longlist – before the winner is announced – I managed to read seven of the twelve books on the longlist but not all the books on the shortlist
- Complete my own Backlist Burrow challenge by reading two books from the backlists of each of the six authors I’ve chosen – I’ve only managed to read six books from my list so far
- Read and review all new NetGalley approvals (from January 2023 onwards) by their publication date – Achieved! My NetGalley ratio now stands at 97%
- Be a better blogger pal – leave comments on posts, share posts on social media, etc – I tried to be but it’s up to others to judge
- Refresh my blog – new theme, archive old posts, etc – Er, no.
- Be more active/creative on Instagram – More active possibly, more creative definitely not
Look out for my blog post setting out my bookish goals for 2024.

If this were an actual report card, I think the teacher would have added “must do better” 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think you did really well! The problem with setting goals is that there are always shiny new books to distract 😄
LikeLike
The struggle is real Cathy.
Good luck with your 2024 goals.
I too will try to cull my backlist.
LikeLike
All in all, I think you did a fine job! I’m a bit surprised at myself that I actually read 20 books this past summer! I’d really like to try to find a way to a literary festival, but there are none here where I live, so, it would mean some very careful travel plans.
LikeLike
I’m a victim of my own rules when it comes to the 20 Books of Summer challenge. I don’t consider it achieved unless I read all the books on my original list. I might go for 10 books this year – probably the 10 I didn’t get to last year!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I usually only commit to 10, and don’t make a real list, per se. I just look at what ARCs I have and put them down, and hope for the best from there. But… I get it… We can be hard on ourselves! Perhaps we should ease up on our rules for ourselves…
LikeLike
I think I need to include ARCs as well. I’m definitely making it too difficult for myself.
LikeLiked by 1 person