2023 Reading Goals Giveaway

This is the second year I’ve made concrete reading goals and I’m getting a crazy kick out of keeping tabs on what I’m reading. So, I thought I would share my progress now that we’ve reached the half-year mark. (Gasp! Where does the time go?!) I’ll share my progress below and you can chime in about your reading goals in the comments. Don’t worry — a goal can be as simple as ‘read a book’ which I know you all are doing, but, if you have more specific goals it would e fun to hear about them too.

TO ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY: just share anything goal related in the comments. Then, in the same comment, list a book that will help you reach your goal. So it looks like this:

“I want to catch up on some suspense series. Night Prey by Susan Sleeman.”

****NOTE: BOOKS MUST BE CHRISTIAN FICTION****

You can enter up to three times in three separate comments — and you can use the same goal for a different one each time.

Books can be published any time through September 2023. Currently published books will be ordered right away, otherwise you’ll get an IOU for a later title.

See? Easy Peasy. But, if you’re still not clear, don’t be shy about asking questions.

Here’s how I’m doing on my goals so far this year:

  • 269 (ish) books read to date, 148 for this 2nd quarter— I’ve added on that ish ’cause I’m going by my Good Reads # but I read ahead for the blog so the count is a wee bit higher. And here’s some fun stats:
  • 56 Audible
  • 88 Audible Plus
  • 19 Chirp
  • 10 for Review
  • 76 from the library (print and audio)
  • 25 print purchased by me

And broken down by genre (because I’m that much of a book nerd these days.)

  • 31 Historical
  • 13 Regency
  • 4 WWI
  • 5 WWII
  • 26 Contemporary
  • 7 Amish
  • 32 Romantic Suspense
  • 3 Suspense
  • 5 Mystery
  • 136 Cozy Mysteries (yikes!)
  • 24 Historical Mysteries
  • 2 Dual Time lines
  • 10 Novella set
  • 8 Middle Grade
  • 1 Fairy Tale Retelling

Now for my goals:

#1 READ MORE INDIE BOOKS

29 books — not great given the number of books I’ve read overall so I’ll try to improve next quarter.

#2 READ MORE DEBUT BOOKS

9 books — not bad, it’s hard to source out debuts, I tend to stumble onto them.

#3 READ MORE NEW TO ME AUTHORS

47 authors — and have found some new faves too, which is going to make my reading life that much more complicated. 🙂

#4 DIVERSIFY MY READING

74 books — largely due to setting (thank you Regencies!) so I’m going to try harder to branch out next quarter.

Diverse Settings:

  • 34 books set in England
  • 45books set in Canada
  • 4 books set in Ireland
  • 3 books set in Germany
  • 2 books set in Africa
  • 3 books set in France
  • 2 books set in Asia
  • 1 book set in Denmark
  • 1 book set in Greece
  • 1 book set in Austria
  • 3 book set in Wales
  • 3 book set in Scotland

Diverse author by nationality:

  • 7 Canadian
  • 7 British
  • 1 Irish
  • 2 Australian
  • 1 New Zealand
  • 8 ethnically diverse authors
  • 15 books with at least one ethnically diverse MC
  • 5 books with disabled or chronically ill characters

#5 PLAY AUTHOR CATCH-UP

Last year I put way too many authors on this list one of which was Christy Barritt (what was I thinking?!) so I failed dismally. This year I’m going to concentrate on one or two each quarter. This time round it was:

Sally Britton (surprised?) — I’ve read 11 out of 19 books (still have some work to do!) and Susan Sleeman — just have 6 books to go (8 if you count her May release) out of…a bazillion books! I’m getting closer!

#6 GIVE UNLOVED TROPES A SECOND CHANCE

5 books read. Sigh — I really don’t like to move out of my comfort zone and I don’t think that’s likely to change any time soon. I enjoyed the books I read for the most part, but I’m not going out of my way to find these tropes. 🙂

#7 STORY CHATS RECOMMENDS

Story Chats is a Booktube video (podcast?) hosted by three indie authors — Valerie Comer, Elizabeth Maddrey and Narelle Atkins. It’s a weekly show where they highlight contemporary Christian Romance (CCR) using various themes/tropes, as well as host guest authors. My goal is to read at least one book recommend a month and, yay, I’m 6 for 6!

SERIOUS ABOUT SERIES: 

And then there’s this whole other beast called a SAS list, that stand for Serious About Series. I might have been overly ambitious when I made up these lists…they fill an entire book after all, but here it is in a nutshell:

TRILIGOIES IN PROGRESS

10 completed (or up to date) out of 28

TRILIGOIES TO START:

7 started and completed; 4 started but not completed out of 28

SERIES I’M CURRENT WITH

33 out of 38 (a few new releases slipped passed me!)

SERIES IN PROGRESS:

Have been randomly reading through 31 out of 31! Close to catching up on a few of them..

SERIES TO START

38 started, 8 up to date out of 106!!!!!

126 thoughts on “2023 Reading Goals Giveaway”

  3. 1. Meet reading goal of 115. Goodreads says I’ve read 60, which is 52% of my goal.
    A book that could help meet the goal is The Hope of Azure Springs by Rachel Fordham.

    pmkellogg56[at]gmail[dot]com

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  4. 2. Read more new to me authors. I know I’ve read quite a few but don’t have stats on this. A book that would meet this goal is Code Name Edelweiss by Stephanie Landsem

    pmkellogg56[at]gmail[dot]com

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  5. 3. Read earlier works of favorite authors. I did catch up on Laura Frantz’s books except for the series. A book that would meet this goal is Beyond All Dreams by Elizabeth Camden.

    pmkellogg56[at]gmail[dot]com

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  6. Love this giveaway day, too, Kav! One of my goals is to read books that are high on my list so first choice is The Secret Book of Flora Lea – Patti Callahan Henry.

    ckbarker at gmail dot com

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  8. #3 New to me author – Mimi Matthews (yes, new to me!) – I’ll just go with the first in one of her series that I’ve heard so much about (Somerset) – The Work of Art. (If this doesn’t fit in the Christian fiction category, just let me know and I’ll chose another, Kav.)

    ckbarker at gmail dot com

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    1. Mimi Matthews is a great author — sometimes I find she uses the Lord’s name in vain too often as a kind of ‘clean’ curse which I’m not a fan of so I pick and choose her books. I have read The Work of Art and featured it on my old blog so that one passed muster. 🙂 And it’s really good too! I like that you have a goal of prioritizing books you want to read. I wonder if I could do that next…maybe pick x number of books that I had wanted to read in 2023 but missed out on? One for each month of the year. Thinking out loud here. 🙂 Thanks for the inspiration. Good luck, Cheryl!

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      1. Kav, thanks for that extra info on Mimi Matthews. I’m not a fan of using the Lords name in vain either. Glad this one is one you would recommend. And am happy to help inspire a new reading goal! 😄

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  9. Took me two days to come up with reading goals…lol! My personal goal is to read what I already have on my physical shelves (which is your pictured bookshelf times a million)….so adding more books doesn’t really help that goal 😂😂

    Okay first goal…try a new-to-me author:

    1. All the Lost Places by Amanda Dykes (December 2022). Plus, that’s such a gorgeous cover!! I’ve seen the real book at Barnes and Noble with the the raised embossed cover…such a delight to hold in my hands. 💖

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  10. Second goal, catch up with a favorite “old” author:

    2. When the Day Comes by Gabrielle Meyer (May 2022).

    I’ve read every one of her Love Inspired Historical books and fell in love with them; from her characters to the setting and history. I’ve supported her by being on her review team for those books & encouraging her writing. So in a way, she’s been like a friend & a writer I’ve enjoyed seeing branch out into new worlds, if you will. Such a sweet person to boot!

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  11. Lastly, try to keep up with at least one Regency series! Which as you know, they come out in quick succession sometimes 😊 Think of Sally Britton, lol!

    3. An Unwitting Alliance by Anneka Walker (July 11, 2023)

    teamob4 (at) gmail (dot) com

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    1. Reading your bookshelves is a noble goal….but it’s soooo much fun to add new books to those shelves too! I feel your reader dilemma! And eeeeppp — I haven’t read anything by Anneka Walker in a while. need to get back on the Regency bandwagon! Good luck, Trixi!

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  12. Ooohhh! I love this giveaway…Time to work on my reading goals for sure!

    #1 – Books high on my list – The Legacy of Longdale Manor by Carrie Turansky

    Alison Boss

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  18. Goodness I’m late to the party. Hopefully not too late though! (And if I am, oh well!lol)

    1. Catch up on a series – two to tango by Kathleen fuller

    ladepooh at hotmail dot com

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