
Another fairly new Best Reads Blog tradition is quarterly reading goal reviews. I’ll share my progress (or not!) here just for some fun, book nerdy stats and, if you’re so inclined you can share a goal or two in the comments. But no pressure – a goal can be as simple as ‘read a book.’
So, 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 or a different one each time, but a different title for each entry.
Books can be published any time up through the end of this year. Currently published books will be ordered this coming week for winners, otherwise it will be an IOU for a title releasing later in October, November or December 2023.
See? Easy Peasy. But if you’re still not clear, don’t be shy about asking questions.
So, I’m trying to be all techie with some of my reading in review summaries — and maybe a goal or two. We’ll see how it goes. 🙂 I am no mathematician and creating and then figuring out how to add a graph to this blog has been…interesting. Bwahahaha!
Breakdown of Genres so far this year (Jan- Sept):

Breakdown of reading formats so far this year
(can we say, audio books for the win?)

383 books read so far. Yes, that seems like a lot, but I live alone and have a chronic pain condition that limits what I can do. Plus I have a tedious amount of stretches and exercises to do daily, plus walks, and listening to books is my dangling carrot! 🙂 And yes, audible books have really increased the # of books I am able to read.
27 books DNF (Did Not Finish) mostly because of content issues regarding coarse language and/or innuendos (cozy mysteries) or cliche plots, culturally insensitive, poorly researched, unlikeable main characters etc.
2023 Goals:
READ MORE INDIE AUTHORS — 38 books read so far which is about par for this time last year but I want to do better on this goal. Already have three more Indies on my TBR pile waiting to be read and hoping for many more before the year’s end.
GIVE DEBUT AUTHORS A CHANCE! — 9 books read — Yikes! I need to work on this goal. Last year I averaged about 2 debuts a month so I’m sliding here!
READ MORE NEW TO ME AUTHORS — 60!! Pretty good since I read a total of 65 in 2022, so will definitely meet or exceed that number. Of course, the problem then becomes having oodles of new authors to follow which also eats into the reading new-to-me author time. Such a conundrum!
DIVERSIFY MY READING — 116 books. Not bad, a little under a third of my total book count. I really want to source out more though. One of my goals for next year will be to read more non American authors.
Non US Settings:

Diverse author nationality: 10 Canadian — 6 British — 3 Australian — 1 Irish — 1 New Zealand
Other Diversity stats: 16 Ethnically diverse authors — 22 books with ethnically diverse characters — 10 books with disabled or chronically ill characters.
AUTHOR CATCH-UP — this is a hot mess. I kept adding authors to the list which, of course, makes it difficult to actually completely catch up with any one of them. 🙂 Sally Britton and Susan Sleeman are the authors I’m still hoping to be up-to-date with by the New Year!
GIVE UNLOVED TROPES A 2ND CHANCE: 9 books — so a minuscule amount of what I actually read. What can I say but I know what I like and I rarely venture from it. Will admit to enjoying all 9 of these books so that’s a lesson learned. Never say never when it comes to a trope, all it takes is a talented author to change your mind.
SERIES: I don’t even want to go there. I am meticulously keeping a record but I keep adding to the series I want to read so it’s a bit alarming.
Started out the year current with 37 series and I’m still current with 28 of them so looks like I know what I should concentrate on this last quarter.
Started out the year with 31 series in progress, am up to date with 6 of them now, and made a wee bit of progress on some others.
As if I didn’t have enough on my plate…er, on my TBR shelf?…I started 55 new-to-me series this year (blushing furiously while avoiding eye contact with anyone in the room.) I am up-to-date with 13 of them though, if that counts. 🙂
Phew! Now it’s your turn: Did you make reading goals this year? If so, how is it going? Share below and remember to include a book title that will help you achieve your goal. You can enter three times in three separate comments using the same goal or different ones. What ever strikes your fancy. Just make sure each entry is for a different title.
DRAW WILL BE HELD AND WINNER ANNOUNCED ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 7 2023.
OFFER OPEN TO ANY READER WHO HAS A KINDLE .COM ACCOUNT FOR EBOOKS. OTHERWISE IT’S WINNER’S CHOICE OF PAPERBACK OR EBOOK FOR US AND CANADIAN ENTRIES.


























