Monthly Reading Goal Update


At the beginning of 2024, my monthly reading goal was simply to read five books, and I aimed for a rough ratio of one fiction to one nonfiction. I quickly realized, however, that I can read a lot more fiction books in a month than nonfiction, and I get more enjoyment out of fiction. Plus, there is more fiction than nonfiction on my TBR. So, in the interest of reading more books, I have tweaked my monthly reading goals a bit for the rest of 2024. Here is what that looks like now:

  • One nonfiction book
  • One book from my paper TBR*
  • One book for book club
  • One book for whatever National Month it is (September is Hispanic Heritage Month)
  • One mood read

*I started using Goodreads at the beginning of this year, so while there 95 books on my "Want to Read" Goodreads list, I have 202 books on my paper TBR.

Whatever I have time for after these five categories will be whatever I feel like reading! I also like to combine categories; for example, the book I am planning to read for Hispanic Heritage Month also happens to be a book that's been on my paper TBR for years now. So, more time for mood reads/books that people have lent me!

As you can probably tell, I am not necessarily a mood reader. I do pick books within these categories that I currently feel like reading or that I feel go with the season, but I schedule out my reads several months in advance, so by the time I get around to reading the book I felt like reading several months ago, I may not particularly feel like reading it anymore. However, I am of the opinion that a good book should be able to grab you and make you glad to be reading it, no matter whether you "felt" like reading it when you picked it up or not.

Do you have a monthly reading goal? Are you a mood reader? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

Comments

  1. 202 books on your paper TBR is CRAZY! Yet I don’t doubt you could read them all within a year 😂 you’re a rockstar!

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    1. Haha I appreciate that! I totally could if reading was all I had to do, but unfortunately my job takes up valuable reading time ...

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  2. I think that's a great reading plan with a good balance. And way to go on how far you've come with your reading goal so far this year! I mean well when I get in the mood to plan my reading ahead of time, but I'm terrible at sticking to it. My mood does get in the way and ignoring it has a tendency of leading me straight into a reading slump. But there is some planning involved. Luckily my TBR is huge so I have a lot of wiggle room. I do wish I read more nonfiction though. I do better reading it when I set myself a goal. I am not participating in any reading challenges this year, but I have in the past and that's been a good motivator for reading types of books I actually enjoy I don't read as often (like nonfiction and poetry). I hope you have a great week and good luck with your reading goal!

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    1. Thank you! It sounds like you've figured out a good balance between planning and avoiding a reading slump. And reading challenges sound fun! What challenges have you done and enjoyed in the past?

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    2. I've done so many different ones over the years! My favorite ones tend to be the ones that give me some flexibility in what I can choose to read. I don't do well with lists, so I tend to not pick challenges that require I read from a list I have to set ahead of time. I've really enjoyed the What's In a Name Reading Challenge (books have to have a certain word or theme in the title), the Nonfiction Reading Challenge and Poetry Reading Challenge. I enjoy nonfiction and poetry but am more likely to read them with the extra motivation of a challenge. I've also done specific genre challenges (historical, cozy mysteries, etc) or book type (Big Books) that were a lot of fun. Another favorite of mine if COYER (Clean Out Your E-Reader), which is made up of four seasons. Participants can take part in all or one or however many. And each season has different requirements depending on the season (it changes each year--and not every season is specific to e-books). I've done a couple of different TBR challenges over the years. There are so many out reading challenges out there! I would like to try a Bingo one someday.

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    3. Wow, those all sound great! I'm intrigued by the What's in a Name challenge. I've never done a reading challenge (besides setting a goal for how many books I want to read in a year), so maybe I'll try one or two next year. Thanks for the recommendations!

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