2017 Results and 2018 Reading Plans

by Susan Roberts

2017 Goal: Read 140 books

In this total:

• 12 need to be non-fiction
• 6 need to be classics (3 re-reads of books I read and college and 3 new to me classics)
• 3 need to be poetry (I always enjoyed poetry but haven't read it in years)

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I did well in some areas but not too good in others. My total books read for the year was 192 which is my best year ever.  It's also surprising since I didn't read any books for the month after my Mom died during the summer.

There was no way that I could come up with a top 10 list because I read so many great books. My favorite 3 books were,

1. The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash (my review)
2. A Catalog of Birds by Laura Harrington (my review)
3. The Baker's Secret by Stephan Kiernan (my review)

The rest of my top 20 (in no order):
Adams, Heather Bell - Maranatha Road (my review)
Backman, Fredrik - And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer (my review)

Brown, Karma - In This Moment (my review)
Cantor, Jillian - The Lost Letter (my review)
Cantrell, Julie - Perennials (my review)
Chamberlain, Diane - The Stolen Marriage (my review)
Everhart, Donna - The Road to Bittersweet (my review)
Fenton, Liz - The Good Widow (my review)
Giandrande, Carole - All That’s Solid Melts Into Air (my review)
Harvey, Kristy Woodson - Slightly South of Simple (my review)
Henry, Patti Callahan - The Bookshop at Water's End (my review)
Jenoff, Pam - Orphan's Tale (my review)
Lamb, Cathy - No Place I'd Rather Be (my review)
Monroe, Mary Alice - Beach House for Rent (my review)
Murphy, Devin - The Boat Runner (my review)
Quinn, Kate - The Alice Network (my review)
Sullivan, Mark - Beneath a Scarlet Sky 
Zadoorian, Michael - The Leisure Seeker (my review)

So I did well on total books read but not too well on my specific plans:

• My goal was 12 non-fiction books - I read 12
• 3 poetry books - I read 3 but I didn't like them.  I don't think poetry is for me.
• My last goal was 6 classics and I read zero.  There were just too many new books to find time for old ones.

I did read more varied genres this year.  Even though a large percentage of my books were southern fiction and historical fiction, I read some YA, some short stories and even some sci-fi.

2018 Goal

My 2018 Goodreads goal is 150 books.  2018 looks like it's going to be a very busy year and I don't think that I'll ever read even close to 192 books again. 150 is much more realistic. Instead of giving myself specific goals this year, I'm just going to make a general goal to try to read more books outside my normal genres.

How about you - do you set a reading goal or do you just want to read what you want to read - when you want to read it and not worry about meeting a goal?

Susan Roberts lives in North Carolina when she isn't traveling. She and her husband enjoy traveling, gardening and spending time with their family and friends. She reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction, and thrillers. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with Susan on Facebook, Goodreads,  or Twitter. 

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