Let’s Talk Bookish: 2023 Reading Wrap-Up

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme that was originally created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books starting in August 2019, and was then cohosted with Dani @ Literary Lion from May 2020 to March 2022. Book Nook Bits has hosted since April 2022.

The first Let’s Talk Bookish of the year! Some excellent topics coming up this month too, so let’s dive right in, shall we?

Let’s Talk Bookish January 5th:
2023 Reading Wrap-Up

Prompts: Happy New Year! How many books did you read in 2023? What were some of your favorites? Least favorites? Did you meet your reading goals for the year? What do you want to continue in 2024? Any reading-related changes you’re planning to make?

I read a total of 103 books in 2023, which I’m very pleased with. I set my goal at 70, but various circumstances and situations gave me that bit more time to read, which I definitely took advantage of. Some of my favourites were Garth Marenghi’s TerrorTome, These Burning Stars, The Foxglove King and The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches – I have more favourites in my 2023 Favourites Post and Top Ten Tuesday favourites.

My least favourites were How Not to Fall in Love, Actually, A Terrible Kindness, and ‘Tis the Damn Season. In different ways, I found these three to be quite disappointing reads. My reading goal was to read 70 books, which I did. I also had some reading challenges, but unfortunately I didn’t manage to fully complete any of them. I’m hoping I do better on the reading challenges in 2024.

I’m sticking with 70 as my reading goal for 2024. The last few years, I’ve put less pressure on myself for the actual reading goal – I used to set it around whatever I read the previous year, and update it through the year if I looked like I was going to reach it. More recently though, I’ve kept it set at the same number. It makes it feel more of a nice surprise if I exceed it then, too.

The other thing I’m continuing into 2024 are Reading Challenges – I started doing these last year and really enjoyed them, and they gave me a good, focused way to read, rather than spending ages trying to randomly decide what to read next. Last year, I didn’t complete any, this year I’ve gone for more challenges but with less prompts, so fingers crossed I can actually fully complete one of them!

How did you do with any bookish challenges last year? What are your reading goals for 2024?