For the last couple of years, I’ve been in a serious reading slump – combined with the guilt, I suppose, that every time I picked up a book to read for fun, there was a little voice in my head saying I should be studying (I’m doing part-time distance learning, Feb-Sept 2020 was my foundation year, Oct 2020-May 2021 was my first level 1, 60 credit module, and I’m just now coming to the end of my second level 1 60 credit module). In 2021 I read 14 books, in 2020 I read 12. Compare that to the 70-80 I used to read and it’s been quite the drop!

This year, I knew I wanted to read more. I’d also discovered booktok, bookstagram and the rest of the online book community at the end of last year and people sharing their love for reading definitely inspired me. I rejigged my TBR (it had gotten a little stale), dusted off my library card, downloaded Libby, set myself a goal of 25 books… and dived in!

I’ve already read 24 books. I’ve increased my reading goal for the year to 50, and tracking still says I’m like 8 books ahead of schedule, so may need to increase it again. And yet… my TBR hasn’t moved. I haven’t read a single book off it. If anything, it’s grown. If I’d read 24 books off my TBR, that would have cleared one of the two piles of books on my coffee table.

And so I’m setting myself some firm goals/intentions for my reading for the rest of this year:
1) Finish the books that are on Libby and don’t check any more out – unless they’re the next in a series I’m reading
2) Finish the pile of books I have checked out of the library and don’t check any more out – unless they’re the next in a series I’m reading
3) Spend the second half of the year focusing on my TBR – both physical and electronic. My physical TBR is one bookcase, another shelf and 4 or 5 piles of books on the floor/tables. There’s also almost 3000 books on my Kindle and my Goodreads ‘to read’ shelf has over 2000 on it.

Wish me luck?