Our best-of episode has been recorded and published, our 2022 lists are complete, and 2023 is almost here, which means it’s time to begin thinking about goals for the new year. And we would love to hear from you? What are you hoping to accomplish? Maybe you want to read one history book each month, check out more authors from your home state, or dip into poetry more often? Maybe you want to read at least one or two really long long books or maybe you want to keep a detailed reading log/diary? Whatever your goals are, let’s plot together! Let us know in the comments. And happy reading!
I don't have a goal so much as a focus for 2023. This summer marks the halfway point in homeschooling my children, Lord willing that I carry on to graduation. Every reaction from family and friends is melancholic. While it is a little jarring to realize how quickly this beautiful season will come to an end, I am really excited about it! It's a joy to watch my children grow and become and find their way! I also know that if all the voices around me are pregrieving the end, I will start to as well. I want to hold the mindset that this journey is a crescendo and nothing is diminishing, no great value is being lost. This year I am focusing on authors' last novels to steep myself in stunning finales. Come further up, come further in!
- Follow along with the Close Reads books, which I did last year for the first time and really enjoyed and found some of my best books of the year that way.
- Read a few plays, at least one a quarter.
- Be intentional about reading poetry. Starting with Endless Life this month, which I’m really loving.
- Read more nonfiction. I read probably less than 5 nonfiction books last year since I just naturally gravitate toward fiction, so I’ll have to be intentional about this too.
- Confession time- Prior to this year, I have NEVER read anything by CS Lewis, including the Narnia books as a child. So I’m planning to make this my year of Lewis- children’s fiction, adult fiction, and nonfiction. I’ve read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe so far and loved it, so I’m really looking forward to staring Out of the Silent Planet next month with the bonus episodes!
I'm looking to read a book-a-week in 2023, after a not terribly impressive 2022. Starting with all of Jane Austen's novels, I also plan on keeping up with Close Read, and going back on some of the books I missed last year.
Generally speaking, descendants of settlers are called Mainers, a certain type of people "from away" are called Maineiacs (generally back-to-the-landers, such as Helen and Scott Nearing who wrote Living the Good Life). Today wealthy professionals are moving into rural areas, and we are waiting to see if changes owing to them are neutral, negative or positive. From Native Americans through colonials, shipping and settlement, up through the 20th and 21st centuries, Maine has always been a state in transition, but I'm not thinking of a review of contemporary literature.
If I have it right, Karen Swallow Prior was born and grew up (partly) in the state. I don't know if she's already done this, but maybe sometime she will take a side trail backward through Maine literature, perhaps starting with someone like Gladys Hasty Caroll, and backward beyond even Nathaniel Hawthorne, who also partly grew up in the state, and attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, along with his classmate Longfellow who was born in Portland and did not much care for living in Maine. Harriet Beecher Stowe, poets Edward Arlington Robinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay; memoir and history, Louise Dickinson Rich; novelists Ruth Moore, author of The Walk down Main Street, Ben Ames Williams, Sarah Orne Jewett, Kenneth Roberts and other great writers of stories past. I would not call her some sort of Mainer, but Willa Cather lived and worked on an island in the Gulf of Maine. There may even be some early writers in the late 18th, early 19th centuries who wrote Gothic literature?
A review of Maine's literature would be a real sweet treat coming from Sarah Swallow Prior.
I started reading along with the 100 Days of Dante in the fall, but a demanding work situation soon took precedence. I hope to return to reading through Divine Comedy this month! I was reading Dorothy Sayers's commentary on it, and it's rich and good and sitting on the same shelf since September waiting for me. :) I also have a substantial (and growing) shelf on writing that I've only dipped into. I hope to work through some of those books more deeply this year as I keep developing my own craft.
I am reading the Divine Comedy too! Almost finished with the first book. I am a little behind the reading schedule too. Hoping to catch up this month. :) I am also reading Dorothy Sayer's edition, and I have found it so helpful!
My goal for 2023 is to read 100 books. I’ve done this before, but this year I want to create some more margin so I can still tackle some longer novels (I’m looking at you, Victor Hugo). I want to continue to incorporate classics, modern fiction, a hearty variety of non-fiction, a few biographies, at least two Shakespeare plays, one of the epics and at least three re-reads.
I'm reading in different genres and following along here on Close Reads and another online book club. I read books I wouldn't normally pick up and I like that. I don't have a number goal this upcoming year, but I like the outline I've made of different new to me authors and genres I don't read much (like history). I am doing a 5X5 challenge and my categories are fantasy, mystery, thriller, memoir/biography, and history. My long book challenge is to read The Hobbit and the three Lord of the Rings books. It will be a fun reading year for sure!
I'd like to tackle some of the books I've bought on kindle sale but haven't made time for! I read a lot but it's often dictated by what library holds come in, so the books I've bought take a back seat even though I really do want to read them!
When my kids were little, and I wasn't reading quite as much as I can now, I picked 12 nonfiction and 12 fiction books to read each year. I'd love to do that again for this year, but I'm still working on my list. A few nonfiction titles I'm planning to tackle are: The Medieval Mind of CS Lewis, Second Nature: A Gardener's Education, and Essentialism.
I also want to to complete the 5x5 challenge and work my way through some of the Close Reads backlist from before I was a listener.
My goal this year was read 52 books. I read 70. But I'm still going to aim for 52, a book a week.
I want to read at least one classic.
I want to read at least one work of quality nonfiction prose: memoir, biography, history, science, natural history, science, etc.
I love the idea of reading a poem a day. I usually do have books of poetry scattered all over the house which I'm reading, but I'd like to be more deliberate.
I'd love to get back into the habit of blogging about my reads every month, just a few sentences per book.
I'd kind of like to find a reading challenge to push me to read books I might not otherwise pick up on my own. I do best when reading more challenging books with other people.
Of course, reading the CR reads is a must. ;) And I'm planning on going through the Space Trilogy too over on the Bonus Reads. I am also chomping at the bit to read some non-fiction titles I have lined up. for example, Reading Lolita in Tehran and Adorning the Dark. And a few others. And I want to reread the Wrinkle in Time series by Madeline L'Engle. Finishing Les Mis too! It's shaping up to be a good year!
Last year I gave my grandpa David McCullough’s ‘Truman’. (It looked like it would keep him busy for awhile:) Since then, that author has popped up several times, from classes to being mentioned on CR. I decided that 2023 will be the year I read his books.
I’m also going to work my way through Bill Bryson… he’s one of my husband’s favorite authors and I’ve only read A Walk in the Woods.
McCullough is great! I’d advise starting with biographies or 1776. Some of the engineering ones might be more daunting (Brooklyn Bridge, Path Between the Seas on the Panama Canal). I listened to the Johnstown Flood.
Reading this forum today, I learned about the 5x5 challenge and decided to use that as a basis for my reading goals. I am not doing a number of books this year because I read a lot of books, and it really doesn’t matter anymore how many I read but what I read. So, my goals are:
1. Follow along with the Close Reads books.
2. Keep up with my buddy reads each month.
3. Do the 5x5 challenge but double the number of categories so I have 50 books. My categories are: Tomes, Close Reads, Audiobooks, Unread Bookshelf books, Longest Library Holds, Nonfiction, Contemporary Fiction (written 2020 or later), Classics, Kindle, and Book Club books.
- I’m actually from Ireland but noticed that for some strange reason I read very few Irish authors, so this year I want to be more intentional and check out some that I haven’t read before.
2. Read some books on the intersection of art, creativity and faith. (Min 6)
- This is just a topic I’m interested in right now and there’s many books I’d like to read & others I want to reread as I think about this over the coming year.
If anyone has recommendations in either category I’d love to hear.
1. Ooh I love talking about Irish literature, that was my focus for my MA. Mostly my focus was on modern poetry, but I also read many plays and novels as well.
I just finished reading A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa, a memoir of a young mother who becomes obsessed (very obsessed) with the Irish language poem Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire (Lament for Art O'Leary). It gets kind of grim, but I really identified with the parts about motherhood and with the way the poem haunts her.
2. Have you read Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeleine L'Engle? I haven't read it in ages, but it was very formative for me when I was a young adult.
I'm currently reading The Mystery of It All: The Vocation of Poetry in the Twilight of Modernity by Paul Mariani, a Catholic poet reflecting about art and faith and modernity.
I loved A Ghost in the Throat! It was probably my favourite book the year I read it. It’s so beautiful, particularly her descriptions of motherhood. The Caoineadh is one of those poems we learn at school, so reading more of the story behind it was fascinating and really brought those people and that time in history to life. I’m so glad you enjoyed it too.
Walking On Water is one I’m planning to re-read but I hadn’t heard of the other book so I’ll definitely look it up. Thank you.
Do you have a favourite novelist or poet from your MA?
How Should We Then Live by Francis Schaeffer is a work I’ve read several times and use in my classes. More accurately it’s about art, faith, and philosophy.
My goal is to read more old books. Aside from that, I tend to hold my reading goals loosely, since I like the flexibility to follow my interests. Some of the titles I'm hoping to get to this year are:
Austen (Persuasion and Mansfield Park, both re-reads, following along with CR and Literary Life podcasts)
Tolkien-Silmarillion (husband is reading this aloud)
Lewis (Space trilogy, Abolition of Man, and Jason Baxter's The Medieval Mind of CS Lewis)
Dante-Purgatorio (returning to the 100 Days of Dante for this one)
Shakespeare-Taming of the Shrew
Sayers (Mind of the Maker, Gaudy Night).
More American literature (Scarlet Letter with CR, O Pioneers or My Antonia)
George Macdonald (Phantastes, re-read of The Princess and the Goblin)
I'm planning on keeping up with most of the Close Reads books, while also keeping an eye on the Literary Life podcast and Circe webinars. In December, I joined the reading of On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius and also read Dracula for the first time, and loved both experiences.
1) I plan to try and read 10,000 pages. Hopefully this will help motivate to read some of the long reads that have been on my list for a while, as well as some shorter books.
2) I have a list of 12 books that I’ve specifically chosen from the all-too-many books that I own and haven’t read to read one a month. Six are fiction and six non-fiction.
I'm mostly just wanting to keep reading. As a mom of an infant, I've been using kindle on my phone a lot. I'm quite excited about the Close Reads list for the year and am wanting to read a lot of the books on the list and listen to the podcasts. 2022 felt like a reading slump year for most of the year (until A Gentleman in Moscow), so I'm hoping 2023 will be better. Goal-wise, I'm hoping to read 24 books.
I plan a deep dive into Edith Wharton’s canon, including her autobiography and a biography, for an upcoming trip to her home, The Mount, in Lenox, MA.
My husband is a movie lover who reads and I am a reader who watches an occasional movie. Together we are choosing books with movie adaptations to read/watch together.
I try to make my goals achievable, so I set my number at 24 (I generally don’t count the books I read to my kids/audiobooks for them, etc.). I like to have a blend of fiction and nonfiction in my reading.
I plan to read most of the CR choices, but I can’t always keep up.
I am the same, Jennifer. I set my numerical goal fairly low because I much prefer to exceed it than to feel under pressure to achieve it! I just want to know I’m achieving a consistent minimum, everything else is a nice bonus.
Exactly. I had a tough year in 2021, and I finished around 21 or 22 books. This year I was able to make it more of a priority and hit 37 so far. It also makes it easier to have some longer books in there too!
Oooh, this is so fun! I love reading others' goals. I have two main goals:
-Reach 100 Victorian novels. This means reading 27 novels, which sounds insane on the surface, but I'm discovering lots of shorter works to offset the longer novels I'd like to read. I'm part of two Victorian reading groups too, so that helps.
-Read more novels by Rumer Godden and Willa Cather. (Plus more 20th century women writers in general.) Cather and Godden have been recent discoveries for me and I've had novels by them on my top ten lists for the past three years now.
1. Close Reads books for sure! I am so excited for the Space Trilogy (my 3rd read through)! I also want to read some of the books from before I joined the group.
2. I've been reading through Ellie (Mumme) Wagner's list of 10 Books for Boys to Read before Age 21, and 10 Books for Girls to Read before Age 21 (If you're interested, follow The Wittenberg Hour podcast and scroll back to late 2020 for the episodes/lists). I got almost halfway during 2022, and would like to finish in 2023.
3. I also want to read more Tolkien. I have been given several of his books and have yet to read them.
As for numbers, I read 58 of 70 books in last year's Goodreads challenge, so I will probably scale back to 55. I don't care much about numbers anyhow.
As for reading matter:
1. I would like to finish reading through the OT and City of God, both of which I read in daily nibbles without regard to a schedule. I have enjoyed lingering in Psalms.
2. I definitely want to read Boethius and Dante this year.
3. The rest I will read as appetite and serendipity lead. I often read out of sync with Close Reads and listen to back episodes, but that's okay. I have to be in the right frame of mind for a book. I have 1200+ books marked want-to-read on Goodreads and I try to pull from that ever-expanding list first, but I also go by books recommended here and elsewhere. I'm reading The Last Days of John Lennon now after listening to the faves episode because I found it on Libby.
Creating art to correspond with the books you’re reading is a wonderful idea. Have you done it before? It must be so wonderful to look back on them at the end of the year!
I’m going to tackle a forgotten Victorian epic poem: Robert Browning’s The Ring and the Book. And while I’m at it, I’ll follow it up with Tennyson’s Idylls of the King.
In addition to keeping up with Close Reads, The Play’s the Thing, and theology study, I’m going to attempt to read Dickens’ Hard Times. The Space Trilogy will be a challenge for me, but if I read along with the audio I think I can do it.
No, this is not my first Dickens. I’ve read TOTC several times as well as others. Hard Times won’t be easy I’m sure, but I’ll give it a go. Small bites will probably help.
It’s a quick enough read, just not as “fun” as some of his others. The opening is great, though—the “what is a horse” section has so many applications.
Every year I read my way through all the Shakespeare plays-some years in chronological order, some years in order of when they take place (for the history plays, anyway) and so on. Time to crank up again-Kinduva fun exercise:) Im also reading my way through the Pulitzer Prize winners and will continue with that. I have „discovered“ so many wonderful writers from ‚way back, like Booth Tarkington and Louis Bromfield, which then sets me off on a whole new author „rabbit trail“! So Ill just continue with both those reading themes. For liter fare, I‘ll pick up mytery novels here and there about classic writers-there is a whole genre of mystery novels about writers like the Brontes, Louisa May Alcott, and so on, waiting to be explored. OK, Happy Reading to All in 2023
Keep up with all the Close Reads Books, Well Read Mom books, whatever Catholic Classics puts out this year and complete the Literary Life Bingo challenge board filling in my own choices where necessary. I'm shooting for 70 books including family Read alouds and popular/fluffy fiction.
It's an Ascension Presents podcast with Fr. Gregory Pine and Fr. Jacob-Bertran Jansek. This fall was the first season and they covered Introduction to the Devout Life in 30 minute daily episodes, reading aloud a chapter, then discussing. The next season will be this spring and I'm internally committed regardless of what work is chosen.
I just want to finish all the books I've started, to be honest. 😆 if I get through those, then I'll start on what hasn't been touched in my audible library.
What is your recommendation for English grammar? I am a grammar nerd, and I’m always happy to add one more book to my collection. BTW, I was an ESL teacher back in the 1970s and loved it.
I have 2 books from 2022 list to finish.,Keeping also up with the 2023 list and bonus reads. But a big goal of mine is to read a few childhood favorites and dig into a few larger works, Biographies, or History. If I can even approach three-fourths of that, I will be pleased. Reading has so many benefits and has help me get through the last two years after the loss of my husband. But my devotions and prayer are number one. Everyone of you are an inspiration to me. And also our podcasters!
My IRL book club was reading/listening to the Faerie Queene this year until we got bogged down and decided to move on with our list. We really liked the Librivox audio version with Thomas Copeland. He was so good!
Hahaha I’m with you! My goal is to keep up with the close reads podcasts, and maybe go back and read along with some old ones! I’ve never read Anne of green gables and I think I’d love to read it along with closereads!
First is to complete most of the Close Reads book list including the patron selections. I will most likely skip One Day in the Life...because I just read and taught that last year.
I have 32 total books on my TBR in 2023 list that are books I have identified as want to read this year, but I would like to reach the goal of at least 36 books this year. Compared to so many of our members this sounds like a very low goal, but I will likely exceed it--it's just my base goal to start.
2022 was not a high book-count. I have some ground to make up.
I always set my goal for 24 books, two books a month. I almost always exceed that amount, but that way I am less afraid to read long books or hard books.
In addition to reading alongside Close Reads and a few other groups, I make my own 5x5 challenge that targets books I tend to buy and then don’t get around to reading. So in 2023 I will be targeting topics like Birding and Illustration/ Animation because I own books on those topics, but I have not read many of them yet. I am also looking forward to rereading books this year. I have given myself a whole category for childhood favorites to help me prioritize books I have been yearning to revisit (like The Giver). Close Reads is playing an active role in this year of Rereading as I have read several of this year’s picks and they are all books I can’t wait to revisit. I keep a reading journal, so I like to mark which books are a reread and I plan on tracking that in 2023. Maybe if I read so many books I own, then I can justify buying some of the year end recommendations.
This is me! I am great when it comes to keeping up with Close Reads and my in-person book groups, but I want to read more books that are personal choices rather than going along with the crowd. My 5x5 categories are contemporary fiction, nonfiction, memoir, prize winners, and backlist fiction (prior to 2000). All of these must be new-to-me books. Some books may fit in multiple categories but can only count for one. This year I am finishing with 104 books read (two per week) and hope to do about the same next year. These 25 will be just for me.
I think it is important to keep in mind that most of us are reading for fun. It can get easy to focus on other people’s lists and lose some of the joy that makes us readers in the first place. That is why I enjoy making my own categories and I am glad that you are also prioritizing what excites you!
1) Continue my new habit of keeping a book of poetry on my bedside table and reading from it instead of checking my phone before bed.
2) Dig more deeply into local history, starting with "The Good Country" (a history of the Midwest). I've done a lot of genealogical work, but I don't actually know that much about what my part of the world looked like before my ancestors arrived.
3) My biggest goal is to work my way through my shelves (and piles...and more piles) of unread books and to limit my public library usage until I get through a greater part of my personal library.
Love this, Bethany! I’ve done genealogical research for my family this year and have bought so many books of that time period and place (Minnesota). Biographies, books of letters, novels of emigration, newspapers. Its all so fascinating.
My new favorite series of children's books are by Nigerian author Atinuke. Her Anna Hibiscus books are beautiful and rich. The character is about 4 or 5 in the first book and she lives with her big extended family in a huge house in Africa, but her mother is Canadian and has married into this culture and has her own perspective that doesn't always square with the African way of dong things. So there's a rich exploration of culture. But even more there's this wonderful experience of the child learning from her elders and learning for herself to have solidarity with the poor, with those who are different, with the grieving and the downtrodden. In one story Anna gives away all her clothing to poor children who have nothing. In another story she inadvertently hurts the children who are selling fruits outside her family's house when she sells the fruit growing in her garden and they can't make enough to feed their families and she has to make reparation to them by bringing them fruit to sell. They've become one of my favorite series. They're really nothing like Narnia on the surface, but they're really worthwhile stories to share with kids.
I don't have a goal so much as a focus for 2023. This summer marks the halfway point in homeschooling my children, Lord willing that I carry on to graduation. Every reaction from family and friends is melancholic. While it is a little jarring to realize how quickly this beautiful season will come to an end, I am really excited about it! It's a joy to watch my children grow and become and find their way! I also know that if all the voices around me are pregrieving the end, I will start to as well. I want to hold the mindset that this journey is a crescendo and nothing is diminishing, no great value is being lost. This year I am focusing on authors' last novels to steep myself in stunning finales. Come further up, come further in!
I have a few goals this year:
- Follow along with the Close Reads books, which I did last year for the first time and really enjoyed and found some of my best books of the year that way.
- Read a few plays, at least one a quarter.
- Be intentional about reading poetry. Starting with Endless Life this month, which I’m really loving.
- Read more nonfiction. I read probably less than 5 nonfiction books last year since I just naturally gravitate toward fiction, so I’ll have to be intentional about this too.
- Confession time- Prior to this year, I have NEVER read anything by CS Lewis, including the Narnia books as a child. So I’m planning to make this my year of Lewis- children’s fiction, adult fiction, and nonfiction. I’ve read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe so far and loved it, so I’m really looking forward to staring Out of the Silent Planet next month with the bonus episodes!
I'm looking to read a book-a-week in 2023, after a not terribly impressive 2022. Starting with all of Jane Austen's novels, I also plan on keeping up with Close Read, and going back on some of the books I missed last year.
Lots of re-reading. :)
Great reading goals in all the comments! After meeting my 2022 goal of 40 books (barely!), in 2023 I am setting more specific goals:
1) keep up with both Close Reads discussions
2) participate in my book club which reads popular fiction
3) reread Frankenstein
4) read another Thomas Hardy novel, after loving Tess last year
So fun to read everyone’s lists and goals.
I’m really looking forward to rereading the space trilogy with CR folks.
Here’s my tentative list, definitely inspired by CR’s best-of. Trying to go for variety. Any other types of books I should add???
Ethics of Beauty (philosophy)
Anna Karenina (classic fiction)
A Man for All Seasons (play)
The Tempest (Shakespeare)
The Dance Most of All (poetry)
Charlotte Mason: home education (education)
Norms & Nobility (education)
The Odyssey (Epic)
Shepherding A Child’s Heart (Parenting)
Poetic Diction (creative process)
The Space Trilogy (Series)
The Great Passion (sort of biography)
The Need to be Whole (nonfiction)
Vipers’ Tangle (fiction)
Robin Hood (Children’s classic)
Ex Libris (essays)
You are not your own (critique of modernity)
Generally speaking, descendants of settlers are called Mainers, a certain type of people "from away" are called Maineiacs (generally back-to-the-landers, such as Helen and Scott Nearing who wrote Living the Good Life). Today wealthy professionals are moving into rural areas, and we are waiting to see if changes owing to them are neutral, negative or positive. From Native Americans through colonials, shipping and settlement, up through the 20th and 21st centuries, Maine has always been a state in transition, but I'm not thinking of a review of contemporary literature.
If I have it right, Karen Swallow Prior was born and grew up (partly) in the state. I don't know if she's already done this, but maybe sometime she will take a side trail backward through Maine literature, perhaps starting with someone like Gladys Hasty Caroll, and backward beyond even Nathaniel Hawthorne, who also partly grew up in the state, and attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, along with his classmate Longfellow who was born in Portland and did not much care for living in Maine. Harriet Beecher Stowe, poets Edward Arlington Robinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay; memoir and history, Louise Dickinson Rich; novelists Ruth Moore, author of The Walk down Main Street, Ben Ames Williams, Sarah Orne Jewett, Kenneth Roberts and other great writers of stories past. I would not call her some sort of Mainer, but Willa Cather lived and worked on an island in the Gulf of Maine. There may even be some early writers in the late 18th, early 19th centuries who wrote Gothic literature?
A review of Maine's literature would be a real sweet treat coming from Sarah Swallow Prior.
I started reading along with the 100 Days of Dante in the fall, but a demanding work situation soon took precedence. I hope to return to reading through Divine Comedy this month! I was reading Dorothy Sayers's commentary on it, and it's rich and good and sitting on the same shelf since September waiting for me. :) I also have a substantial (and growing) shelf on writing that I've only dipped into. I hope to work through some of those books more deeply this year as I keep developing my own craft.
I am reading the Divine Comedy too! Almost finished with the first book. I am a little behind the reading schedule too. Hoping to catch up this month. :) I am also reading Dorothy Sayer's edition, and I have found it so helpful!
My goal for 2023 is to read 100 books. I’ve done this before, but this year I want to create some more margin so I can still tackle some longer novels (I’m looking at you, Victor Hugo). I want to continue to incorporate classics, modern fiction, a hearty variety of non-fiction, a few biographies, at least two Shakespeare plays, one of the epics and at least three re-reads.
I’m hoping to read more of books I already own via physical, kindle and audible. My goal is to read 10 of each type this year.
I'm reading in different genres and following along here on Close Reads and another online book club. I read books I wouldn't normally pick up and I like that. I don't have a number goal this upcoming year, but I like the outline I've made of different new to me authors and genres I don't read much (like history). I am doing a 5X5 challenge and my categories are fantasy, mystery, thriller, memoir/biography, and history. My long book challenge is to read The Hobbit and the three Lord of the Rings books. It will be a fun reading year for sure!
I'd like to tackle some of the books I've bought on kindle sale but haven't made time for! I read a lot but it's often dictated by what library holds come in, so the books I've bought take a back seat even though I really do want to read them!
When my kids were little, and I wasn't reading quite as much as I can now, I picked 12 nonfiction and 12 fiction books to read each year. I'd love to do that again for this year, but I'm still working on my list. A few nonfiction titles I'm planning to tackle are: The Medieval Mind of CS Lewis, Second Nature: A Gardener's Education, and Essentialism.
I also want to to complete the 5x5 challenge and work my way through some of the Close Reads backlist from before I was a listener.
My reading goal is more of a quest: to find a new top-ten favorite book!
My goal this year was read 52 books. I read 70. But I'm still going to aim for 52, a book a week.
I want to read at least one classic.
I want to read at least one work of quality nonfiction prose: memoir, biography, history, science, natural history, science, etc.
I love the idea of reading a poem a day. I usually do have books of poetry scattered all over the house which I'm reading, but I'd like to be more deliberate.
I'd love to get back into the habit of blogging about my reads every month, just a few sentences per book.
I'd kind of like to find a reading challenge to push me to read books I might not otherwise pick up on my own. I do best when reading more challenging books with other people.
Of course, reading the CR reads is a must. ;) And I'm planning on going through the Space Trilogy too over on the Bonus Reads. I am also chomping at the bit to read some non-fiction titles I have lined up. for example, Reading Lolita in Tehran and Adorning the Dark. And a few others. And I want to reread the Wrinkle in Time series by Madeline L'Engle. Finishing Les Mis too! It's shaping up to be a good year!
Last year I gave my grandpa David McCullough’s ‘Truman’. (It looked like it would keep him busy for awhile:) Since then, that author has popped up several times, from classes to being mentioned on CR. I decided that 2023 will be the year I read his books.
I’m also going to work my way through Bill Bryson… he’s one of my husband’s favorite authors and I’ve only read A Walk in the Woods.
And of course… the CR list:)
Hey, everyone… Happy Reading!
I own several of McCullough's biographies. I have really enjoyed all of his books that I have read.
I really loved John Adams by McCullough. One of my favorite books.
McCullough is great! I’d advise starting with biographies or 1776. Some of the engineering ones might be more daunting (Brooklyn Bridge, Path Between the Seas on the Panama Canal). I listened to the Johnstown Flood.
Reading this forum today, I learned about the 5x5 challenge and decided to use that as a basis for my reading goals. I am not doing a number of books this year because I read a lot of books, and it really doesn’t matter anymore how many I read but what I read. So, my goals are:
1. Follow along with the Close Reads books.
2. Keep up with my buddy reads each month.
3. Do the 5x5 challenge but double the number of categories so I have 50 books. My categories are: Tomes, Close Reads, Audiobooks, Unread Bookshelf books, Longest Library Holds, Nonfiction, Contemporary Fiction (written 2020 or later), Classics, Kindle, and Book Club books.
I love your category ideas! I usually stick to topics/authors, so this has given me some new ways to think about the challenge!
1. Read more by Irish authors. (Min 6)
- I’m actually from Ireland but noticed that for some strange reason I read very few Irish authors, so this year I want to be more intentional and check out some that I haven’t read before.
2. Read some books on the intersection of art, creativity and faith. (Min 6)
- This is just a topic I’m interested in right now and there’s many books I’d like to read & others I want to reread as I think about this over the coming year.
If anyone has recommendations in either category I’d love to hear.
I love Niall Williams's work, in particular This Is Happiness. Also Actress by Anne Enright or The Light of Evening by Edna O'Brien.
Awesome! I don’t know much Irish lit but loved Maurice O’Sullivan’s “Twenty Years A-Growing.”
1. Ooh I love talking about Irish literature, that was my focus for my MA. Mostly my focus was on modern poetry, but I also read many plays and novels as well.
I just finished reading A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa, a memoir of a young mother who becomes obsessed (very obsessed) with the Irish language poem Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire (Lament for Art O'Leary). It gets kind of grim, but I really identified with the parts about motherhood and with the way the poem haunts her.
2. Have you read Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeleine L'Engle? I haven't read it in ages, but it was very formative for me when I was a young adult.
I'm currently reading The Mystery of It All: The Vocation of Poetry in the Twilight of Modernity by Paul Mariani, a Catholic poet reflecting about art and faith and modernity.
I loved A Ghost in the Throat! It was probably my favourite book the year I read it. It’s so beautiful, particularly her descriptions of motherhood. The Caoineadh is one of those poems we learn at school, so reading more of the story behind it was fascinating and really brought those people and that time in history to life. I’m so glad you enjoyed it too.
Walking On Water is one I’m planning to re-read but I hadn’t heard of the other book so I’ll definitely look it up. Thank you.
Do you have a favourite novelist or poet from your MA?
Check out this list from Dr. Prior about Art and Faith: https://cfc.sebts.edu/faith-and-culture/16-books-on-faith-and-art/?mibextid=Zxz2cZ
Thank you! I had seen that but I had forgotten to save it so I never would have found it again! It looks like a great list.
How Should We Then Live by Francis Schaeffer is a work I’ve read several times and use in my classes. More accurately it’s about art, faith, and philosophy.
My goal is to read more old books. Aside from that, I tend to hold my reading goals loosely, since I like the flexibility to follow my interests. Some of the titles I'm hoping to get to this year are:
Austen (Persuasion and Mansfield Park, both re-reads, following along with CR and Literary Life podcasts)
Tolkien-Silmarillion (husband is reading this aloud)
Lewis (Space trilogy, Abolition of Man, and Jason Baxter's The Medieval Mind of CS Lewis)
Dante-Purgatorio (returning to the 100 Days of Dante for this one)
Shakespeare-Taming of the Shrew
Sayers (Mind of the Maker, Gaudy Night).
More American literature (Scarlet Letter with CR, O Pioneers or My Antonia)
George Macdonald (Phantastes, re-read of The Princess and the Goblin)
I'm planning on keeping up with most of the Close Reads books, while also keeping an eye on the Literary Life podcast and Circe webinars. In December, I joined the reading of On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius and also read Dracula for the first time, and loved both experiences.
1) I plan to try and read 10,000 pages. Hopefully this will help motivate to read some of the long reads that have been on my list for a while, as well as some shorter books.
2) I have a list of 12 books that I’ve specifically chosen from the all-too-many books that I own and haven’t read to read one a month. Six are fiction and six non-fiction.
That’s a great idea to set a page goal, instead of a book goal.
I'm mostly just wanting to keep reading. As a mom of an infant, I've been using kindle on my phone a lot. I'm quite excited about the Close Reads list for the year and am wanting to read a lot of the books on the list and listen to the podcasts. 2022 felt like a reading slump year for most of the year (until A Gentleman in Moscow), so I'm hoping 2023 will be better. Goal-wise, I'm hoping to read 24 books.
I plan a deep dive into Edith Wharton’s canon, including her autobiography and a biography, for an upcoming trip to her home, The Mount, in Lenox, MA.
My husband is a movie lover who reads and I am a reader who watches an occasional movie. Together we are choosing books with movie adaptations to read/watch together.
That’s a good compromise on your and your husband’s interests. :)
Those both sound like really fun goals!
I try to make my goals achievable, so I set my number at 24 (I generally don’t count the books I read to my kids/audiobooks for them, etc.). I like to have a blend of fiction and nonfiction in my reading.
I plan to read most of the CR choices, but I can’t always keep up.
Looking forward to re-reads of Austen and Lewis!
I am the same, Jennifer. I set my numerical goal fairly low because I much prefer to exceed it than to feel under pressure to achieve it! I just want to know I’m achieving a consistent minimum, everything else is a nice bonus.
Exactly. I had a tough year in 2021, and I finished around 21 or 22 books. This year I was able to make it more of a priority and hit 37 so far. It also makes it easier to have some longer books in there too!
Oooh, this is so fun! I love reading others' goals. I have two main goals:
-Reach 100 Victorian novels. This means reading 27 novels, which sounds insane on the surface, but I'm discovering lots of shorter works to offset the longer novels I'd like to read. I'm part of two Victorian reading groups too, so that helps.
-Read more novels by Rumer Godden and Willa Cather. (Plus more 20th century women writers in general.) Cather and Godden have been recent discoveries for me and I've had novels by them on my top ten lists for the past three years now.
Rumer Godden is one of my favorites. One of my lifetime goals is to get ahold of all her out of print and hard to find titles.
That’s a wonderful goal! I’d love to know your favorite Godden novels. I’ve only read a handful so far.
1. Close Reads books for sure! I am so excited for the Space Trilogy (my 3rd read through)! I also want to read some of the books from before I joined the group.
2. I've been reading through Ellie (Mumme) Wagner's list of 10 Books for Boys to Read before Age 21, and 10 Books for Girls to Read before Age 21 (If you're interested, follow The Wittenberg Hour podcast and scroll back to late 2020 for the episodes/lists). I got almost halfway during 2022, and would like to finish in 2023.
3. I also want to read more Tolkien. I have been given several of his books and have yet to read them.
Ha! I go to church with John and Ellie. Do you know them?
As for numbers, I read 58 of 70 books in last year's Goodreads challenge, so I will probably scale back to 55. I don't care much about numbers anyhow.
As for reading matter:
1. I would like to finish reading through the OT and City of God, both of which I read in daily nibbles without regard to a schedule. I have enjoyed lingering in Psalms.
2. I definitely want to read Boethius and Dante this year.
3. The rest I will read as appetite and serendipity lead. I often read out of sync with Close Reads and listen to back episodes, but that's okay. I have to be in the right frame of mind for a book. I have 1200+ books marked want-to-read on Goodreads and I try to pull from that ever-expanding list first, but I also go by books recommended here and elsewhere. I'm reading The Last Days of John Lennon now after listening to the faves episode because I found it on Libby.
I highly recommend Esolen's translation for Dante. I found his notes to be SO helpful when I read The Divine Comedy.
I need to read Boethius.
Thank you! I think we might actually have that in the house somewhere. If not, I'll find a copy.
1. Read 85 books
2. Read a new book for every old book I read (I read too many old books!)
3. A poem a day
4. Create works of art to correspond with 10 books
5. Write at least one quote in my commonplace book for every book I read.
Creating art to correspond with the books you’re reading is a wonderful idea. Have you done it before? It must be so wonderful to look back on them at the end of the year!
Yes! I did it about 10 years ago. Look under “Galleries” at https://www.christiwilliamsart.com/
Keep up with my scholé mom group and Close Reads. I usually set a goal of 50 books but rarely finish... happy with 30! ☺️
I’m going to tackle a forgotten Victorian epic poem: Robert Browning’s The Ring and the Book. And while I’m at it, I’ll follow it up with Tennyson’s Idylls of the King.
In addition to keeping up with Close Reads, The Play’s the Thing, and theology study, I’m going to attempt to read Dickens’ Hard Times. The Space Trilogy will be a challenge for me, but if I read along with the audio I think I can do it.
I’m not into Sci-Fi/Fantasy. I’m counting on Heidi to make it worth my while. 😉
Is this your first Dickens? If so, Hard Times might not be the best gateway to Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities is also short-ish, and a lot better.
No, this is not my first Dickens. I’ve read TOTC several times as well as others. Hard Times won’t be easy I’m sure, but I’ll give it a go. Small bites will probably help.
It’s a quick enough read, just not as “fun” as some of his others. The opening is great, though—the “what is a horse” section has so many applications.
I set my goal at 65 books for this year which was just a tad too ambitious. So for 2023, my goal is to read 60 books including:
- Keeping up with the Close Reads podcast and bonus pods
- Working on "The Well Trained Mind" reading list here and there
- Reading 1-4 books on theology/ministry/church
- Reading 2 biographies
- Reading along with my co-op mamas group
- Reading a couple of books that my 7th grader will read in the Fall
Thanks for all the good ideas, here!
Every year I read my way through all the Shakespeare plays-some years in chronological order, some years in order of when they take place (for the history plays, anyway) and so on. Time to crank up again-Kinduva fun exercise:) Im also reading my way through the Pulitzer Prize winners and will continue with that. I have „discovered“ so many wonderful writers from ‚way back, like Booth Tarkington and Louis Bromfield, which then sets me off on a whole new author „rabbit trail“! So Ill just continue with both those reading themes. For liter fare, I‘ll pick up mytery novels here and there about classic writers-there is a whole genre of mystery novels about writers like the Brontes, Louisa May Alcott, and so on, waiting to be explored. OK, Happy Reading to All in 2023
Keep up with all the Close Reads Books, Well Read Mom books, whatever Catholic Classics puts out this year and complete the Literary Life Bingo challenge board filling in my own choices where necessary. I'm shooting for 70 books including family Read alouds and popular/fluffy fiction.
I am completely tracking with your list except I don’t know about this Catholic classics! Do tell!
It's an Ascension Presents podcast with Fr. Gregory Pine and Fr. Jacob-Bertran Jansek. This fall was the first season and they covered Introduction to the Devout Life in 30 minute daily episodes, reading aloud a chapter, then discussing. The next season will be this spring and I'm internally committed regardless of what work is chosen.
I hadn’t heard of it either! Thank you for sharing it!
Read 25 books and keep up with the Close Reads list & podcast
Keep up with the Close Reads books, read more books off my shelves, read more nonfiction, and try to knock a few books off my TBR list.
Goal: keep up with the Close Reads reading list.
Desires: read a poem at least once a week.
Create a "to read" list for my ESL students.
I’m a retired ESL teacher. ‘Home of the Brave’ by Katherine Applegate was always a favorite for intermediate students. Happy New Year!
Thanks! I'd love to share our experiences sometime!
I just want to finish all the books I've started, to be honest. 😆 if I get through those, then I'll start on what hasn't been touched in my audible library.
Amen to that!
In the year to come I have a few goals:
1. Read 80 books. (I am not sure if this is even possible to accomplish.)
2. Read from a book of poetry each night. (Currently reading Malcom Guite's Waiting on the Word)
3. Read more history.
4. Follow Close Reads *more closely* this year. I often loose interest. Anyone else feel the same?
5. Finally, I do want to read a few tomes: The Ethics of Beauty and Jacques Barzun's From Dawn to Decadence.
I DREAM of the day I have the time to read 80 books - that sounds SO lovely! You'll have to let us know if you reach it!
I LOVE From Dawn to Decadence! I’ve read it twice!
Also read a few books on English grammar!
I have a good one on English grammar. I'm an ESL teacher. What do you want?
What is your recommendation for English grammar? I am a grammar nerd, and I’m always happy to add one more book to my collection. BTW, I was an ESL teacher back in the 1970s and loved it.
English for Everyone. A Comprehensive Visual Reference by Diane Hall and Susan Barduhn. Penguin Random House. It's color coded according to modules.
I have 2 books from 2022 list to finish.,Keeping also up with the 2023 list and bonus reads. But a big goal of mine is to read a few childhood favorites and dig into a few larger works, Biographies, or History. If I can even approach three-fourths of that, I will be pleased. Reading has so many benefits and has help me get through the last two years after the loss of my husband. But my devotions and prayer are number one. Everyone of you are an inspiration to me. And also our podcasters!
This is the list I put in my phone today… as can be seen, I really narrowed things down 😂
2023 Reading Goals:
More C.S. Lewis (The Four Loves; Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Lit)
More non-fiction
More poetry (Maybe T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland)
A re-read or two (maybe Ivanhoe)
Brothers K
More Canterbury Tales
Tolkien (maybe LOTR)
More modern books
Faulkner
Hardy (Either Return of the Native or Mayor of Castorbridge)
Dostoevsky bio
Salinger
More Chretién
Rosemary Sutcliff
Bel Canto
Shakespeare
Beowulf
Joan Baez bio
Maybe listen to the Faerie Queene
The Ethics of Beauty
Parzival
Milkman
Do you have a version of the Faery Queen you are listening to you recommend?
No. I’ve only read the text visually, I’ve never listened to it before.
My IRL book club was reading/listening to the Faerie Queene this year until we got bogged down and decided to move on with our list. We really liked the Librivox audio version with Thomas Copeland. He was so good!
1) Finish the 2022 Close Reads and the extra bonus books that I didn't get to.
2) Keep up with the 2023 Close Reads and bonus books.
3) Supper of the Lamb and a Shakespeare play
4) Complete one of the Challies reading challenges with all of these titles and hopefully a few more.
After reading Christopher Beha's The Whole Five Feet, I am reading at least the first 17 volumes of The Harvard Classics.
I’m just sitting here waiting for Close Reads/Goldberry Books to tell me what my goals are. 😉 Will there be a reading challenge this year?
Hahaha I’m with you! My goal is to keep up with the close reads podcasts, and maybe go back and read along with some old ones! I’ve never read Anne of green gables and I think I’d love to read it along with closereads!
I have a few reading goals:
First is to complete most of the Close Reads book list including the patron selections. I will most likely skip One Day in the Life...because I just read and taught that last year.
I have 32 total books on my TBR in 2023 list that are books I have identified as want to read this year, but I would like to reach the goal of at least 36 books this year. Compared to so many of our members this sounds like a very low goal, but I will likely exceed it--it's just my base goal to start.
2022 was not a high book-count. I have some ground to make up.
I always set my goal for 24 books, two books a month. I almost always exceed that amount, but that way I am less afraid to read long books or hard books.
In addition to reading alongside Close Reads and a few other groups, I make my own 5x5 challenge that targets books I tend to buy and then don’t get around to reading. So in 2023 I will be targeting topics like Birding and Illustration/ Animation because I own books on those topics, but I have not read many of them yet. I am also looking forward to rereading books this year. I have given myself a whole category for childhood favorites to help me prioritize books I have been yearning to revisit (like The Giver). Close Reads is playing an active role in this year of Rereading as I have read several of this year’s picks and they are all books I can’t wait to revisit. I keep a reading journal, so I like to mark which books are a reread and I plan on tracking that in 2023. Maybe if I read so many books I own, then I can justify buying some of the year end recommendations.
This is me! I am great when it comes to keeping up with Close Reads and my in-person book groups, but I want to read more books that are personal choices rather than going along with the crowd. My 5x5 categories are contemporary fiction, nonfiction, memoir, prize winners, and backlist fiction (prior to 2000). All of these must be new-to-me books. Some books may fit in multiple categories but can only count for one. This year I am finishing with 104 books read (two per week) and hope to do about the same next year. These 25 will be just for me.
I think it is important to keep in mind that most of us are reading for fun. It can get easy to focus on other people’s lists and lose some of the joy that makes us readers in the first place. That is why I enjoy making my own categories and I am glad that you are also prioritizing what excites you!
I have three main reading goals.
1. Read 50 books
2. Read a poem every day in 2023
3. Read 10 biographies of Saints/Christians
Which biographies do you have in mind? I'd love to have some titles to check out.
@rabia This is the tentative list I have. Subject to change.
-Confessions
-The God Smuggler
-The Life You Save May Be Your Own
-A Burning in my Bones
-Apostle to the Plains
-Surprised by Joy
-The Faithful Spy
-Evidence Not Seen
-A Passion for the Impossible
-Fierce Convictions
I read the Faithful Spy this year and loved it. I am toying with the idea of reading it to my middle school boys this year.
Thank you so much!
These are beautiful goals! I’m copying you :)
I have three goals, so far:
1) Continue my new habit of keeping a book of poetry on my bedside table and reading from it instead of checking my phone before bed.
2) Dig more deeply into local history, starting with "The Good Country" (a history of the Midwest). I've done a lot of genealogical work, but I don't actually know that much about what my part of the world looked like before my ancestors arrived.
3) My biggest goal is to work my way through my shelves (and piles...and more piles) of unread books and to limit my public library usage until I get through a greater part of my personal library.
What a great recommendation! As a Midwesterner, I’d love to dig deeper into that history as well. My TBR stack just got one book higher🙂
Love this, Bethany! I’ve done genealogical research for my family this year and have bought so many books of that time period and place (Minnesota). Biographies, books of letters, novels of emigration, newspapers. Its all so fascinating.
My new favorite series of children's books are by Nigerian author Atinuke. Her Anna Hibiscus books are beautiful and rich. The character is about 4 or 5 in the first book and she lives with her big extended family in a huge house in Africa, but her mother is Canadian and has married into this culture and has her own perspective that doesn't always square with the African way of dong things. So there's a rich exploration of culture. But even more there's this wonderful experience of the child learning from her elders and learning for herself to have solidarity with the poor, with those who are different, with the grieving and the downtrodden. In one story Anna gives away all her clothing to poor children who have nothing. In another story she inadvertently hurts the children who are selling fruits outside her family's house when she sells the fruit growing in her garden and they can't make enough to feed their families and she has to make reparation to them by bringing them fruit to sell. They've become one of my favorite series. They're really nothing like Narnia on the surface, but they're really worthwhile stories to share with kids.