2018 reading goals

With all of the major life changes that took place in 2017, one area of my life that was a bit neglected was reading. Gratefully, nights spent reading on the couch next to my fiance (where he is also reading) is not uncommon, but less time on the train and just less time dedicated to reading, in general, meant that I wasn’t super successful in my 2017 Readolution (see the end of the post for how I did).

And, while last year’s reading goals centered around a list of specific books, for 2018 I’ve chosen to repeat a few goals from prior years (e.g., read all book club books), but I’ve also shifted my focus a bit via the Read Harder Challenge.

I will read:

• all book club books (~10)
• at least 30 books
• a page each day of Foodimentary

I will complete the Read Harder Challenge:

1. A book published posthumously
2. A book of true crime
3. A classic of genre fiction (i.e. mystery, sci fi/fantasy, romance)
4. A comic written and drawn by the same person
5. A book set in or about one of the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, or South Africa)
6. A book about nature
7. A western
8. A comic written or drawn by a person of color
9. A book of colonial or postcolonial literature
10. A romance novel by or about a person of color
11. A children’s classic published before 1980
12. A celebrity memoir
13. An Oprah Book Club selection
14. A book of social science
15. A one-sitting book
16. The first book in a new-to-you YA or middle-grade series
17. A sci-fi novel with a female protagonist by a female author
18. A comic that isn’t published by Marvel, DC, or Image
19. A book of genre fiction in translation
20. A book with a cover you hate
21. A mystery by a person of color or LGBTQ+ author
22. An essay anthology
23. A book with a female protagonist over the age of 60
24. An assigned book you hated (or never finished)

Are you participating in a reading challenge? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

2017 readolution final stats

Read:

• all book club books (~10) 5/10
• at least one book per week read a total of 22 books
• a chapter each week in a year of living mindfully completed
• one page daily in 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne’s Precepts did not complete

1. When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi completed
2. Brave Enough, Cheryl Strayed completed
3. The Girls with the Lower Back Tattoo, Amy Schumer completed
4. The Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery, Robert Kolker (book club) started but didn’t finish
5. 10% Human, Alanna Collen (book club) completed
6. The Accidental Empress, Allison Pataki (book club) started but didn’t finish
7. Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own, Kate Bolick started but didn’t finish
8. Today Will Be Different, Maria Semple (book club) started but didn’t finish
9. The Rules of Civility, Amor Towles (book club) didn’t finish
10. Wonder, R.J. Palacio completed
11. Kindred, Octavia E. Butler completed
12. All the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders completed
13. Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng completed
14. Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie completed
15. New releases in 2017 (~5) completed
    1. Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, Roxanne Gay
    2. Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy, Anne Lamont
    3. Books for Living, Will Schwable
    4. The Sun and Her Flowers, Rupi Kaur
    5. The Book of Hygge, Louisa Thomsen Brits
16. Quarterly issues of Bella Grace Magazine completed
17. Bi-monthly issues of Harvard Business Review did not complete