Every year I take pen to paper and write out my reading goals for the year and I share them here on the blog. I share for the accountability, mostly, but, maybe, also to inspire others to read. My reading goals for 2019 were a huge success with a couple of downright failures. This year I am inspired to be more thoughtful, purposeful about what I am reading. This past year I followed a lady on Instagram who read through a century of published works, one book for each of the past 100 years. A lofty feat. It was this endeavor that inspired an idea! One, which I am incorporating into my reading goals for 2020. The following highlighted 'list' are my reading goals for 2020:
Read a book published in each year since I was born. I was born in 1963, so I intend to research books published in each year beginning with 1963. While I had a number goal last year, and this will inadvertently become a numbered goal, 57 books in 2020 - because I will be 57 this year - I am more concerned with selecting books for each year, being purposeful and thoughtful about what I am reading. And, following with my One Little Word® for the year 2020 - LEARN - I am hoping to learn some things along the way.
Modern Mrs. Darcy 2020 Reading Challenge. I recently joined the MMD Book Club, although not necessarily to read each of the monthly book club suggestions (although I might join in here and there) but I joined more than less for the bookish discussions and the MMD classes that are offered, in particularly a class that teaches you how to write better book reviews. Also, this year, as last year, I am participating in the MMD 2020 Reading Challenge. This year's challenge is packed full of potential thoughtful and challenging books. This is, once again, a 12-book challenge that I have included below along with my possible book contenders. If you want to join in on the fun of Modern Mrs. Darcy's 2020 Reading Challenge please do that here:
a book published the decade you were born: Where Eagles Dare, Letters to Malcolm, Travels With Charley
a debut novel: The Secret Life of Bees, Homegoing, The Outsiders
a book recommended by a source you trust: The Word is Murder, Ask Again, Yes, Daisy Jones & the Six
a book by a local author: Flannery O'Conner's, The Complete Stories
a book outside your (genre) comfort zone: 11/22/63, Once Upon A River, Rebecca
a book in translation: My Brilliant Friend, The Alchemist, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
a book nominated for an award in 2020: TBA
a re-read: Gilead, Piercing the Darkness, The Bourne Identity, Without Remorse
a classic you didn't read in high school: Slaughterhouse Five, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, 1984
three books by the same author: most probably David Baldacci, Daniel Silva, or Elizabeth George, three
books in their series'
Read a-loud books with Jeff. Over the past year and a half we have been reading a-loud together each workday morning and we have been plowing through some amazing Christian non-fiction for spiritual formation, primarily. The books we have read are: The Battlefield of the Mind, The End of Me, Love Does, Everybody Always, The Sacred Marriage, Cherish, Facing Your Giants, The Screwtape Letters, and Soul Keeping, and we're about to finish Max Lucado's, Because of Bethlehem. This year a few books I am hoping we'll read a-loud together are: The Meaning of Marriage by Timothy Keller, It's Not About Me by Max Lucado, No Wonder They Call Him The Savior by Max Lucado, Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper, and Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard. Together, we read 8 books in 2019 and I would love to read another 8 books a-loud with Jeff again this year in 2020. In fact, we're beginning the new year by reading Kyle Idleman's Not a Fan.
Between the Covers Book Club reads. My book club reads a book a month and this year we may also be adding an extra selection for those who want to read more and discuss a book outside of our monthly meeting dates (because we save discussion of what we're reading for book club, for book club). This could mean I might read upwards of 24 more books this year if I read that second book each month. Our January book club read is Gilead.
Track My Reading Goals. For quite a few years now I have tracked my goals in one way or another via memory keeping. Here are the ways I have tracked my goals over the past several years: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. This year, I haven't decided yet how I will scrap my reading goals. I am considering heavily a ring album (traveler's notebook size), both digital and traditional pages, highlighting favorite books of each month but otherwise one page of what I read throughout the month. But, that idea is not hardened in stone. I'm just not sure, yet. I will, however, track my goals somehow.
Do you read? Do you set reading goals? What are your reading goals?