Goodreads & Grace (Updated)
Way back in 2022 (why does that feel like decades ago?) I wrote a reflection on my Goodreads goal and how I never quite meet it. The thing with goals is that they can make you feel bad when you fall short. That’s not to say we shouldn’t set goals, it’s just that maybe when we don’t quite get there, we should be a little gentler on ourselves.
You can read the full 2022 reflection below, but I wanted to offer a bit of an update for my 2024 goals.
Original Goodreads Goal: 30 books
Books Read So Far (Dec. 1): 23
2024 Highlights
Despite the distance between those numbers, I’m actually quite proud of myself. And there’s a handful of days left to get a little closer. Plus, I’ve read some really good books this year, so those 23 were well-chosen—and nothing feels better than avoiding the reading slump altogether.
Some of the best books I read this year include Demon Copperhead, The Phoenix Bride, and The Lost Bookshop.
Demon Copperhead
Demon Copperhead lived up to the hype with a fantastically written re-telling of the Dickens classic, David Copperfield. It explored some usually passed-over people and aspects of life that we don’t like to think about, but are incredibly real circumstances for many Americans.
The Phoenix Bride
The Phoenix Bride was amazing! It takes place in England between the plague years and the Great Fire. This is not a time period I typically read about and I loved everything about it! The story follows a young widow who is recovering from the shock of losing her husband to the plague. She’s welcome under her sister’s roof, and convalesces there under the watchful eye of a doctor reeling from his own losses and plague experiences. The two find solace in each other and their relationship grows as they both come back to themselves.
The Lost Bookshop
Finally, The Lost Bookshop tells the story of three individuals whose stories collide in unexpected ways. A woman running from her abusive relationship find refuge with an eccentric employer. She then meets a young man researching a mysterious bookstore and the two fall into each other’s orbits to discover the story of woman, decades before, who found her own sanctuary in a bookstore you only find when you need it most.
No matter how many books you’ve read this year, I hope you enjoyed them all!
The 2022 Reflections
The other day I saw a video of a girl who showed her Goodreads accomplishments and she was up to 400 books. 400. We are not the same person. But if I've learned anything about myself in the last twenty-REDACTED years, it's that when I set myself goals, I need to give myself plenty of grace in the meeting of them.
I have this type-A personality that I'm trying to embrace and use to my benefit. Part of that is not beating myself up when something doesn't go to plan. And if you're wondering, yes, I stressed about meeting my Goodreads reading goal in 2022 and fell totally short. Which meant, back in November, I needed to take a deep breath and acknowledge that this year was the year of re-reading, slow reading, and enjoying a handful of books that were genuinely good. Even if there were only 19.
All in all I'm actually pretty proud of that number. Especially considering that there have been years where I only read 5 books. And years where I didn't read at all.
This year was a good year, though. I read a lot of new books that I really enjoyed and was able to get into. I've checked a few more off my classics-to-be-read list, and got into a few that had been on my list for a while. I also re-read two books throughout the year, which set me back a bit. Both were for book discussions.
The Truth and Beauty by Andrew Klavan and The Stranger in the Lifeboat by Mitch Albom were both book discussion books that I had also read independently.
Disappointments
This year I also had two disappointing reads that set me back and threw me into a reading slump. I really wasn't expecting either of these to do that so it really confused me. The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd and The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake were not what I was expecting.
The Classics
The two main classics that I was able to check off my list were The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. Like most classics, both of these have been on my list for a long time, and I loved them both!
Finally Read
Among some of the classics were newer books that have just been on my list for a long time. I was pretty excited to get to both The King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo and The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock. I loved them both more than I thought I would, and now I'm just waiting patiently to get the second in the King of Scars duology!
So I've given myself some grace. I've come to the conclusion that I will not necessarily always meet a goal. And that's okay. Especially when it comes to a hobby and pastime like reading. I hope you all had lovely holidays and a fantastic 2022!
Happy reading!
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