My 2023 reading challenges

Hello Hello! how are you today?

I hope that you all had a lovely Christmas (for those who celebrate) and a restful Sunday for everyone who doesn’t celebrate. I hope you were spoiled with lots of lovely gifts and food… I definitely was, the TBR grew significantly, oops… (Christmas and Birthday haul to come mid-January!!)

Today I’m back on the blog to talk to you about the challenges I’ve set myself for 2023. Over the years, I’ve realised that I’ve been putting a lot of pressure on myself to read books following certain challenges, trends, or stuffing as many blog tours into my year as I can. I’ve also realised that it has somewhat taken the pleasure out of reading…

So in the new year, I would like to read more books that I WANT TO READ. Although, I do love myself a challenge and I’ve realised that if I can get my owned TBR to fit prompts, instead of buying new books, I’ll get this TBR to go down as I’m having fun.

Here are a few challenges that I’ve enjoyed in the past, and some new ones to help me tackle that TBR. In the coming days, I’ll post more specifically about a few challenges, with some TBR options as well!

TACKLING MY PHYSICAL TBR

Now, I know I feel guilty about this, and I shouldn’t, but I have a TONNE of books on my TBR. Last time I checked, I think I almost had 600 unread books on my TBR — that’s right, 600 books, on my shelves! Needless to say, I’m quickly running out of wall space and my bank account isn’t thanking me for it.

In the first weeks of January, I’m going to make a concerted effort with my fiancé to go through all the books I’ve got, unhaul those I’ll never read (because of a change in reading tastes for example), and put into a specific TBR list on Goodreads the ones I’m keeping. I’ll also be able to do a bit of a shuffle and reorganise my shelves, since I’ve just put up 2 new ones in my new lounge.

To help me tackle this physical TBR, I’ll be using a TBR jar. I’ve already put some genres in there, and I’m going to add some book titles, or get my mum and fiancé to pick a few each and put in the jar. I’ll also put a few jokers in there, such as “mood read” or “let a friend pick” so I keep it varied but also don’t feel obligated to read what I pick. I have most of my owned books in a spreadsheet with genres indicated for each, so that’s how I’ll pick a fantasy book if that’s the paper I pull out of the jar for instance. And since I know I have a lot of fantasy, I might see how many fantasies I have in the list and then use a random number generator to pick my read! Since I still have to finish my thesis in the start of the year, I won’t go crazy with picking loads of books each month, and I still get books from my library, so I might pick 4 papers from the jar and work my way through them slowly, without putting pressure on myself!

TACKLING THE NETGALLEY TBR

And what you are now going to learn, if you didn’t already know, is that I have a TONNE of books on NetGalley that I haven’t gotten around to yet — and yes, I am ashamed!! So for these books, I’m going to write each title on a piece of paper and put in a separate jar so I make sure to pick 1 NetGalley book every month. I think that should help whittle down that TBR. And of course, I’ll do my best to review the books as soon as I finish them!

2023 POPSUGAR READING CHALLENGE

I have wanted to finish this challenge for so many years now, and every year I seem to read less and less of the prompts, which are so fun though! I think this is down to the fact that I get tempted by books I don’t own yet, and actually don’t buy so I can never complete the challenges within the year. I think I managed to read about 30 in 2020, probably 10 in 2021, and I doubt I even read 5 in 2022.

2023 is the year this is going to change because I LOVE the prompts for this challenge, it helps me read more varied books and genres I wouldn’t usually pick. So this year, I’ve done my best to find books from my owned TBR that I can use, and I’ve only got about 8 books to buy to complete this year’s challenge, so that’s not as bad as all 50!! I’ll post a full TBR for this challenge in a few days, to keep myself accountable and remind me of my TBR picks! I’ll also be using my TBR jar for this challenge.

12 BOOKS CHALLENGE

I saw this going about on Twitter and Instagram and thought it was such a good idea, and I trust so many of my friends’ reading tastes that I knew I needed to give this a go. I’m going to be posting a TBR for this in the next few days as well, so keep an eye out for this post as there are SO MANY amazing books!

2022 GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS

I don’t know if this is actually a challenge or not, but for a few years now, I’ve been telling myself that I’ll read the books that are picked in the Goodreads Choice Awards, and SHOCKER, I never get around to this. So in 2023, I’m hoping to get around to these books. I have a few on my TBR already and a few to buy, but since there aren’t that many books, I’m sure I can slot one or two into quieter months throughout the year. I’m especially excited for this because it will help me read some books out of my confort zone!

Here is the TBR for this “challenge” I’m setting myself:

Fiction — Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Kevin
Mystery & Thriller — The Maid by Nita Prose
Historical Fiction — Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Fantasy — House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas (I have the first one of this series, so I’ll read that one as soon as I can and continue on with the sequel!)
Romance — Book Lovers by Emily Henry (I own this one!)
Science Fiction — Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel
Horror — Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak (This is part of my 12 Books Challenge already!)
Humour — The Office BFFs by Jenna Fischer andAngela Kinsey
Nonfiction — Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown
Memoir & Autobiography — I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
History & Biography — Bad Guys: A Homosexual History by Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller
Graphic Novels & Comics — Hearstopper Volume 4 by Alice Oseman (I have the 3rd book to read still, and then I will gift myself this one for my birthday in January, I think!)
Poetry — Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman
Debut Novel — Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (also part of my 12 Books Challenge!)
Young Adult Fiction — The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (I’ve already read the 1st book, and own the 2 others, so I can finish this series in 2023!)
Young Adult Fantasy — Gallant by V. E. Schwab (I own this one!)
Middle Grade & Children’s — I Am Quiet by Andie Powers and Betsie Petersen

2023 DISNEY READING CHALLENGE

Hannah from Han Loves to Read mentioned a really fun-sounding challenge that I just have to do: the Disney Reading Challenge. If you know me, you know I am a sucker for Disney, I absolutely love it, and I really like the prompts for this challenge. You can find the announcement for it and the prompts here! I’ll have a TBR post up in a few days and will use the TBR jar for this challenge as well (it’s going to be a very full jar, haha)!

23 BOOKS IN 2023

I do this trend every year, and every year I fail. I write the books down in my bullet journal, but then I never check back to see what I’ve got to read. So I’ve decided to add these titles to my TBR Jar to start with, and I’ve got them all placed on a different shelf so I remember they are there! I’ve chosen some incredible books for my challenge in 2023, and I’ll have my TBR post up in a few days!

SERIES TO START AND SERIES TO FINISH

And the final challenge I would like to tackle in 2023 is the series challenge, that I also set every year… and always fail to accomplish. Over the years, I’ve started so many series and added so many more to my TBR, and I’ve never gotten around to finishing them or even starting them, which is a shame because I really really love reading series, especially fantasy! I’ve picked out 10 series to start, and 10 series to finish, I think most of them are from my owned TBR as well, so that will help with tackling the physical TBR, and I’ll add these series to the TBR jar as well!

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So that was my list of challenges I would like to tackle in 2023, and since the majority will be using my physical TBR, I hope to accomplish them!

That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed reading this post.

See you soon, stay safe,

Ellie xx