Looking Back At My Bookish Goals For 2024 – Win Some, Lose Some

BlogMilestones_GoalsI like to set myself some book-related goals every year. Now the moment has come to look back to see how I did before I set some new ones for this year.

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2024 Final

  1. Achieve my Goodreads target of reading 104 books – I made it… just.
  2. Read at least 25 books that have been in my TBR pile for longer than two years – Failed. I only managed 16.
  3. Attend Henley Literary Festival and one other literary festival – Achieved. I went to three events at Henley Literary Festival and one at Falmouth Books Festival.
  4. Complete the When Are You Reading? Challenge 2024 – Achieved. My wrap-up post is here.
  5. Complete the What’s in a Name Challenge 2024 – Failed. I matched 5 of the 6 prompts but the final one – a book title involving footwear – eluded me.
  6. Complete the 20 Books of Summer 2024 reading challenge – By my strict rules I failed because I didn’t read all the books on my original list, but most others would say I succeeded because I read 20+ books during the period of the challenge.
  7. Complete the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2024Achieved. I read 64 historical fiction books in 2024.
  8. Read all the books on The Walter Scott Prize 2024 shortlist before the winner is announced – Nearly. There was one I didn’t get to – The Upper Country by Kai Thomas
  9. Complete my Backlist Burrow challenge – Failed. I only managed to read one from my list  – All Day at the Movies by Fiona Kidman – so this challenge will have to roll over.
  10. Maintain a 95%+ feedback ratio on NetGalley – Achieved. My ratio is currently 97%.

If you set any book-related goals for 2024, how did you get on?

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2025 Sign-Up #histficreadingchallenge

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2025

The start of a new year means it’s time to sign up for some reading challenges. I’ve decided to take part again in the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader. As well as indulging my love of historical fiction, I like sharing reviews and recommendations with other fans of the genre every month. And Marg also compiles fascinating statistics about the books read by participants each month.

You can find full details of the 2025 challenge here, including where to post your reviews each month, but the main idea is to choose one of six different reading levels to aim for:

20th Century Reader – 2 books
Victorian Reader – 5 books
Renaissance Reader – 10 books
Medieval – 15 books
Ancient History – 25 books
Prehistoric – 50+ books

I read over 60 historical fiction novels in 2024 which makes me officially ‘Prehistoric’. Given historical fiction is my favourite genre, I’m going to aim for Prehistoric level again in 2025. I already have my eye on some of the books in my TBR pile (see below).  If you enjoy historical fiction or would just like to read more of the genre, why not join me and sign up?