Hello, dear readers, happy Tuesday and Happy New Year!

Yesterday, I sat down with my bullet journal and did some serious planning for 2024. I set my goals, resolutions, and themes of the year, and a lot of what went into that has to do with reading.

I thoroughly enjoyed 2023, reading-wise. It was a year of branching out, reading for knowledge and perspective, rather than just for comfort, and steering clear of reading challenges.

This time last year, I joined a modern classics book club, which has enabled me to discover some incredible books and authors I would have otherwise never picked up.

While mostly unintentional, 2023 was a year of mindful and active reading for me. I found myself getting into a nice routine where books became a constant and steady presence in my daily life, rather than coming in bursts of hyper focus or months-long slumps.

I found myself connecting more deeply with books, asking more questions of them, and thinking about them from different angles. That, and other lessons, I’m now taking over into 2024.

Reading Goals for 2024

My reading goals this year are in line with my overall themes: comfort and challenge. I want to keep sinking into books for the comfort and happiness they bring me, while also challenging myself to see past the hesitation that would usually keep me away from some genres, authors and themes.

Here’s what I’d like my reading to achieve this year:

1. Consistency — allowing time for reading every day (as much as possible). I find that dedicating a set window of time each day works best. I read most of my books from 10pm to 11pm every day.
2. Organisation — I have lots of books I keep meaning to read before I get distracted by other books. I think that’s because I never set myself a TBR. Monthly or yearly TBRs don’t really work for me, as I find them limiting. But I’ve been enjoying weekly TBRs. Every Monday, I decide on a ‘book of the week’, and that’s what I stick to for as long as I need to finish it.
3. Open-mindedness — I want to read more genres that intimidate me. Nonfiction, sci-fi, magical realism, and classics all fit into this category.
4. Reading for the craft of writing — reading more actively so I can write more book reviews, reading in order to understand how I can apply some tricks to my own novel writing, and reading more poetry to sustain my own poetry, are musts this year.
5. Talking more about books — I have so many people in my life who love reading, yet we hardly ever talk about books. I’d like to initiate and encourage more such conversations this year. For my benefit, and theirs.

January TBR

I know I said monthly TBRs don’t work for me, but I’m only making an exception for January. This is because I have two books I absolutely must read (one for the book club, one to review), and because I’d like to not drown in the dreaded January slump that always creeps up on me.

Here’s my TBR for the month, which I also covered in a post on the Coffee Time Reviews Instagram:

1. Eliza Mace by Sarah Burton and Jem Poster is a historical fiction book coming out in March 2024, about a fierce young detective (whose name I happen to share), who embarks on a quest to find her missing father and claim her independence.

Thank you, Duckworth Books for sending me this ARC.

2. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is my book club pick for this month. This is an 1898 horror novella considered to be one of the greatest ghost stories in English literature.

3. Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead is a 600+-pages beast, but a charming one at that. This book will scratch a very specific itch that I love and hardly ever see in literature: stories about cinematography that connects the past to the present.

Great Circle tells the story of troubled actress Hadley Baxter who is tasked with playing Marian Graves, a famous female aviator who disappeared in the 1950s. As Hadley starts looking into Marian’s life, she becomes strangely drawn to the ambitious and tragically lost woman who she now has to bring back to life, over 50 years later. As she does, she uncovers mysteries that could answer to Marian’s disappearance.

I’m so excited to dive into this one. There is something about January that begs for long books. Maybe the long nights?

4. The Forward Book of Poetry 2023 by the Forward Prizes is a yearly anthology that always helps me discover incredible contemporary poets. It’s very diverse and curated to reflect its time freakishly well. It’s relevant, powerful, and horizon-expanding. I’m reading this throughout the whole month and enjoying every minute.

What are you reading this month and have you set some goals for 2024? Let me know in the comments!