I’m currently working on my reading goals for 2017 and debating with myself on how I want to focus my reading in the coming year. I’m almost overwhelmed by the sheer amount of books on my TBR and I feel like I want to read everything at once and dive into a million different directions. But before the 2017 reading extravaganza can begin, and before I post my full-on 2016 wrap-up post (because 2016 isn’t over yet!) I wanted to look back and see how I did on the reading goals I set for myself for 2016. So, here they are: my 2016 reading goals, and whether I succeeded or failed on these eight different challenges.

Reading Goal #1: Read more long books.

I definitely didn’t pick up every long book on my TBR shelf in 2016 (not even close, actually), but overall I didn’t do too badly on this goal. I did read a bunch of longer books, although those did tend to be fantasy and/or YA, which are faster reads for me, and I didn’t challenge myself by reading any long classics or anything like that. The longest books I read in 2016 included The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss (1107 pages), A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas (624 pages), Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (659 pages), and Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (647 pages).

Reading Goal #2: Read some older books, including at least 2 classics

Complete failure on this goal. I read zero classics in 2016 (I mean, I read Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” published in 1892, but I wouldn’t count that as a full book) and I’d say I read very few “older” books. The oldest books that I did read in 2016 were Love Poems by Pablo Neruda (pub 1952) and Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (pub 1966).

Reading Goal #3: Make a dent in my TBR shelf

Um. Well. I did read a pretty decent number of books on my physical TBR shelf, but I also bought a LOT of books this year, so a dent was definitely not made.

Reading Goal #4: Read more books I think I will love, and fewer books I think I will like

This goal was a tricky one; basically I wanted myself to not hold back from picking books that would be challenging yet rewarding, and not default to picking up silly books that I already sort of assumed in advance would turn into lackluster 2-star reads. I think overall I did better at this in 2016 than I did in 2015, but I think that in terms of those challenging-yet-rewarding books I hope to do even better in 2017.

Reading Goal #5: Discover new favorite authors

I’d say that this goal was a success! New favorite authors I discovered in 2016 include Amelia Gray, Jeanette Winterson, Becky Chambers, Jenny Lawson, Carmen Lau, Elena Ferrante, Samantha Hunt, and Cheryl Strayed.

Reading Goal #6: Read books I haven’t read by authors I know I love

I think I did pretty well at this goal; in 2016, I picked up books by previously-loved authors Kazuo Ishiguro, Octavia Butler, Leigh Bardugo, Sarah J. Maas, N.K. Jemisin, Jhumpa Lahiri, Seanan McGuire, Patrick Rothfuss, and Neil Gaiman.

Reading Goal #7: Participate in at least one Dewey’s Readathon

Success! I participated in both rounds of Dewey’s this year, and they were both wonderful.

Reading Goal #8: Continue with my favorite book series

Again, success! I read subsequent books in these series in 2016: the Kingkiller Chronicles, the Broken Earth trilogy, the Court of Thorns and Roses series, and the Six of Crows duology.

 

Do you set reading goals for yourself? How did you do on your 2016 goals? Let me know!