Tea Party (Q&A: Our 2023 Reading Goals and Accomplishments)

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Hello! We hope you all are having a lovely holiday season! It’s been a hectic one for sure, so let’s slow down and take a minute and relax for our last tea party of the year!

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Did you set any goals for reading this year? Did you accomplish those goals?

Pineapple

I had a couple really concrete goals! One of my big problems is that usually I don’t have a meter for what I want to attain. I just say “I want to read more,” or “I want to exercise” more. For 2023, I wanted to start keeping a record of how many books I read and what I thought of them, so I did that in my planner. I also have a literal My Book Journal to write in for books that I don’t physically own. I feel proud that I was able to do this with not only books, but also movies, shows, and other things I did!

Another one was reading more popular fiction! I… admittedly could have done better on this one. But I finally read The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan this year! It’s a big deal to me. I’ve told this story across my socials, but Riordan was a teacher in my hometown and came to my middle school when he was on his book tour for The Lightning Thief! So I saw a local theater production of the musical with a friend and decided that I was FINALLY gonna do it. I was gonna read this book that everybody else in my class had read.

Raspberry

I set a goal of reading 100 books this year. I also set a monthly goal in my bullet journal! I managed to accomplish both! Which is either a testament to my reading skillz or lack of a social life haha

Apple

I set some goals for last year’s Tea Party episode. Two of them were books on my shelf that I haven’t read yet, and the other two were books from college that I want to reread since I sped through them for class the first time around. Somehow, I managed to not read any of those books this year, though. I read other books, but those ones? Not a page. I do end up reaching for books that aren’t on my TBR more often, though, so I’m not too surprised.

Any bookish goals for next year?

Pineapple

I think I want to set my bar low next year. I read a lot of articles, fanfic, etc. in general, but I only read about nine (poetry/fiction) book books this year. I might finish another one before the year ends since my winter break is beginning, but who knows.

Right now my goal is at least twelve books, so roughly one per month. I don’t think there are any specific books I have on my list next year. We’ll see what strikes me. I’d like to read more popular books again, though. Maybe two next year, ha ha.

Raspberry

I have a goal of reading a different genre each month (ex. January: read one microhistory and one cozy mystery). Hopefully, I’ll be writing more than reading next year though! It’s been a year of transitions, so I feel like my writing has taken the back burner, and now it’s starved for attention.

Apple

I think I’ll keep the same goal and aim to finish the four books from this year. Or at least the two I haven’t read yet. It feels a little weird to have them on my shelf otherwise. But aside from that, I don’t think I’ll be too strict. I really like picking books in the moment.

Did you find any new favorites while reading this year?

Pineapple

This was kind of a year of exploration for me. I read a lot of experimental poetry at the beginning and then kind of fell off the wagon as my year got busier.

I read The Mermaid From Jeju by Sumi Hahn and that was a hard one to follow up. It was so good! I had a hard time picking up anything for a while afterwards.

Raspberry

Oh my gosh, so many new favorites! I honestly could go on and on about the great books I’ve read. I will say that I read more books with older protagonists this year, and I’ve loved it! If Thursday Murder Club and Killers of a Certain Age aren’t on your tbr, they should be!

Apple

Raspberry and Pineapple gave me some recs that I really enjoyed, and I also started some shows that are based on books, so now I want to read the novels because I feel like they’ll definitely make my favorites list. I love watching adaptations first because then I can enjoy them without noticing if they changed anything. Plus, I get super excited to inhale all the additional details from the book versions!

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Do you have a favorite read from this year? Any goals you totally smashed and need celebrated or goals that you need to put somewhere for accountability? Let us know in the comments!

Have a good holiday and we’ll see you all in the new year!