Reading Challenges – Page 88 – What Cathy Read Next…

BlogMilestones_Goals 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.

The When Are You Reading? Challenge was hosted again this year by Sam at Taking on a World of Words. It involves reading a book set in each of twelve time periods. Determining what year a book belongs in is the decision of the participant. On the whole, the rule is to choose a year where the largest part of the action occurs or the most important event.

I’m pleased to say I’ve managed to read a book to fit each of the time periods, although it was a close run thing with the last one. Links from the book title will take you to my review.

If you love historical fiction but often find yourself sticking to one or two favourite time periods, or if you’re keen to read more historical fiction in 2024, look out for the sign-up post for next year’s challenge.

Pre-1200: Bellatrix by Simon Turney