2021 Reading Wins (or close seconds)

In 2020, I pledged to read 45 books for my Goodreads annual reading challenge. I’m proud to say that I hit that goal on Dec 28th when I finished Martin the Warrior by Brian Jacques.

In 2021, I pledged to read 50 books. The year came and went, and by year end I’d logged 40 individual titles. It’s disappointing to set goals for yourself and not meet them in their entirety, but I’m choosing to focus on what I DID accomplish vs what I didn’t. Yes, I was 10 books short of my goal, but I read 40 (FORTY!) books over the course of what was a very tumultuous year for many. Here’s my annual reading recap:

January – 6 books

• The King Raven Trilogy: Hood, Scarlet, and Tuck – Fantasy
• Redwall – Children’s Fantasy
• Trim Healthy Mama Plan – Nonfiction
• Evil Under the Sun – Mystery

February – 5 books

• Hallowe’en Party – Mystery
• Thrawn (Star Wars) – Sci-Fi
• Thrawn Treason (Star Wars) – Sci-Fi
• Little House in the Big Woods – Children’s Fiction
• Heir to the Empire (Star Wars) – Sci-Fi

March – 4 books

• Dark Force Rising (Star Wars) – Sci-Fi
• Writing Without Rules – Nonfiction
• The Body Institute – YA Sci-Fi
• Story or Die – Nonfiction

April – 3 books

• The Anatomy of Story – Nonfiction
• The Last Command (Star Wars) – Sci-Fi
• The Mostly Invisible Boy – MG Fantasy

May – 4 books

• How to Train Your Dragon – MG Fantasy
• How to Be a Pirate – MG Fantasy
• Master and Apprentice (Star Wars) – Sci-Fi
• Outbound Flight (Star Wars) – Sci-Fi

June – 0 books, however I read multiple full manuscripts for the #WriteMentor mentoring program.

July – 3 books

• Chaos Rising (Star Wars) – Sci-Fi
• Merci Suarez Can’t Dance – Children’s Fiction
• The Bees – Literary Fiction

August – 3 books

• Greater Good (Star Wars) – Sci-Fi
• Aurora Rising – YA Sci-Fi
• Aurora Burning – YA Sci-Fi

September – 1 book

Tristan Strong Destroys the World – MG Fantasy

October – 5 books

• A Conspiracy of Stars – YA Sci-Fi
• An Anatomy of Beasts – YA Sci-Fi
• Trigger Mortis – Thriller
• Jurassic Park – Sci-Fi
• The Lost World – Sci-Fi

November – 4 books

• Forever and a Day – Thriller
• Five Total Strangers – YA Thriller
• Gone Too Far – YA Thriller
• The Cousins – YA Thriller

December – 2 books

• Light of the Jedi (Star Wars) – Sci-Fi
• Casino Royale – Thriller

That’s the list! 40 books read cover to cover (or rather, 38 books and 2 audiobooks). Thriller and science fiction remain on top for genre, although I’m proud of how many nonfiction titles frequented the list this year.

I’ve done the Goodreads reading challenge for three years running now, and Goodreads tells me that my average is 44 books a year. Based on that, I’ve committed to reading 45 books in 2022. My ultimate goal is to get to 52 books a year, every year. Perhaps I’ll meet that number, even this year. But for now, 45 feels manageable. I’m off to a good start: 75 pages into book 3 of 45 – Star Wars Into the Dark by Claudia Grey.