2018 Reading Goals

With a new year comes new goals, new books, and new reading challenges. I love having specific goals and challenges to follow with my reading as it forces me to get out of my comfort zone and read things that I won’t normally pick up off the shelf.

If you read my last post you will have seen that I read 320 books in 2017. This is a lot more books than I have ever read in the past and I am not betting on reading that many again this year, but we shall see.

Last year I followed the Diversity Bingo spreadsheet for my reading challenge and really enjoyed it. I was challenged to find new books with a variety of authors, genres, and characters.

Besides that one challenge I worked at reading books that had been on my To Read list for years and was able to read (or decide not to read) every book that had been added to my Goodreads shelf before 2017. This is something that I was very proud of and makes my To Read list a lot more accessible and manageable now.

Now on to 2018. I have decided to challenge myself with 3 different reading lists (two of which I have created myself) to diversify and widen my reading this year.

1. Diversity Challenge – This challenge picks a different group of people to focus on each month and I will make sure to read something that embodies that category each month.
   

   JANUARY – Biracial Awareness  – The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry FEBRUARY – Black History Month – I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou MARCH – Woman History Month – The Glass Castle by Jeanette Wells APRIL –  Arab Heritage Month – Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji MAY – Asian/Pacific Islander History Month – Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok ​JUNE – LGBT Pride Summer – Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenedes

   JULY – LGBT Pride Summer – Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli AUGUST – Mental Health Awareness – Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen  SEPTEMBER – Hispanic History Month – Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan OCTOBER – Physical Disability Awareness Month – The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards NOVEMBER – Native American History Month – Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese ​DECEMBER – Religious Minorities – Ms. Marvel vol. 1 by G. Willow Wilson

2. Canadian Book Challenge – This past year I have discovered that I don’t read enough Canadian books and as a proud Canadian that needs to change. I am working off of the CBC list here and have chosen 12 books (one for each month) to read throughout the year.
   

   TITLE	AUTHOR
   Do Not Say We Have Nothing	Madeline Thien
   Company Town	Madeline Ashby
   Oryx and Crake	Margaret Atwood
   The Diviners	Margaret Lawrence
   The Sisters Brothers	Patrick deWitt
   Etta and Otto and Russell and James	Emma Hooper
   The Break	Katherena Vermette
   The Birth House	Ami McKay
   Brother	David Chariandy
   River Thieves	Michael Crummey
   Everything Beautiful is not Ruined	Danielle Younge-Ullman
   One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter	Scaatchi Koul

3. Goodreads Awards Challenge – For my final challenge I have decided to read a book from all 20 of the Goodreads Awards categories, that I haven’t already marked “To Read.” This will get me out of my comfort zone and discover new genres as well as authors and books that I haven’t heard of before.

Don’t like these ideas? Here are some other challenges:

• Master List of 2018 Reading Challenges
• 50 DIY Reading Challenges
• Popsugar’s Reading Challenge 2018
• Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge