I love the holidays and soak in all of the cookie-baking-gift-wrapping-holiday-movie-watching togetherness I can get my hands on. I sing Christmas songs for weeks, decorate multiple trees inside my home and go Clark Griswold on the outside lights covering the house. I build an advent calendar for my children each year and even bring out the magical elf to get into a bit of holiday mischief. I love it all. 

But there’s something magical about the week AFTER Christmas, too. For some, this week feels like a bit of a let down: the aftermath of weeks of effort boiled down to a single day of celebration. But not for me. For me, that week feels suspended in time, a bonus week with the entire family home after a beautiful holiday but before the fresh start of a year ahead. It’s full of possibility and I often spend that time thinking about the past year and making plans for the year ahead, not to mention cleaning out a closet or two, too.

And since my reading life is a very important part of my actual life, that means taking a hard look at the bookish data I collected all year long so I can think intentionally about the year ahead. So today, I’m sharing all the pertinent stats from my reading life and sharing my upcoming goals for the new year.

The success of this reading reflection actually depends on what I’ve done almost twelve months prior: set up my bookish spreadsheet. I created my personal spreadsheet to track what matters most to me in my reading life: the books and authors I read, the formats I read in, the genres I choose and where I get my book recommendations from. I pin it to my browser and each time I finish a book, I enter in my reading data and watch my reading stats come to life on the page. It’s thrilling to literally see my reading life grow over time. 

But now, it’s time to take a look at my reading life from the past twelve months and set new goals (and maybe even a new bookish spreadsheet) for moving forward. Let’s begin!

Books:

Let’s start with the number of books I’ve read. My original goal was to read 49 books in 2021. Why 49 and not 50? Well, 50 seemed like a tall order in the midst of a crazy year and 49 just didn’t feel as intimidating. I know, I know. Well, I’m happy to say that not only did I read 49 books, I read…..90. Yes, that’s right. I read 90 books. That might be a lot of books for some and too little for others, but for me, it was just right.

I read books to grow myself a better life. Yes, I read purely for the fun of getting lost in fiction stories, but I take stock of the lessons learned from each and every title and apply them to my own life to make it better. So ultimately, this means I opened myself up to 90 opportunities to live a bigger life. And that makes me very happy. 

This year, I am NOT setting a numbers goal for the number of books I want to read. It doesn’t matter how many books I read. What matters is how I learn from them. So in 2022, my goal is to simply read and see where it takes me.

Authors:

While I love diving into the backlist of my favorite authors, my ultimate goal is to read as many different authors as I can, especially BIPOC authors who can broaden my ideas of the world and how it works. So, I went into 2021 planning to read books written by BIPOC authors at least 50% of the time.

Unfortunately, I fell short of this goal and only read books written by BIPOC authors approximately 30% of the time. And if the only way to build a better world is to be more inclusive of the people, ideas and experiences within it, I must change this statistic in my reading life as a starting point.

So moving forward, my goal remains the same, but with a slight addition: read books written by BIPOC authors at least 50% of the time AND share them freely with others. 

Formats:

I prefer to read printed books. Books where I can turn to actual pages, save my place with a treasured bookmark and even smell the pages, if I want to. =) But since my TBR stack has a tendency to get piled so high the books start to wobble, I wanted to better utilize the world of electronic and audio books in 2021. 

I failed miserably. 

But if failing miserably means I enjoyed the physical, tangible copy of a book in my hand, then I’m good with that. So this year, I’ll continue tracking how many books I read on a digital device, but I’m not hoping to shatter a goal here (even though that would be quite easy since I only read 17 of my 90 books online). But, if you feel the need to convince me otherwise, share your top tips for online reading with me in the comments. 

Intended Audience:

I have a secret to share: I only read children’s literature until fairly recently. Really! As a literacy teacher educator and children’s literature instructor, I was constantly reading books to share with my teachers and their students. There was little time left to indulge in an adult fiction book and quite frankly, I didn’t feel the need to. 

But I started feeling left out from so many readerly conversations and started noticing the stares of others as I whipped out my middle grade chapter book when reading in public. So, I did it. I browed my bookish Facebook groups for a title to begin with and went headfirst into the world of Kate Clayborn. And I haven’t returned since. =)

I remembered what it was like to read books that had characters who were my age, in similar situations and with similar lessons to learn. I went on a bit of an adult reading spree and dove into all the backlist books I never read when they were bestsellers and cracked open my reading life in ways I wish I had done sooner. 

Ever since, my goal has been to balance my reading life between adult and children’s literature selections 50% of the time. And that’s exactly what I’ve done. 

Looking forward, I plan to keep this goal, but might refine the details a bit and balance my children’s literature selections among picture books, middle grade and young adult texts. 

Genres:

Well, I’m a bit of a hot mess here. I have a clear favorite genre and that was proven loud and clear in my reading statistics: realistic fiction. 

I LOVE REALISTIC FICTION. I truly love getting lost in a story where the characters become friends and their experiences become my own. To me, that’s the real power of reading: to experience the world in ways we simply cannot in real life. 

So, it was no surprise to me that I chose to read realistic fiction 50% of the time. In fact, I’m surprised it wasn’t more! Non-fiction (personal development and self help, to be exact) was the runner up with a smattering of other genres vying for third place. 

As I head into the new year, I’m setting a goal that many might disagree with: my goal is to continue reading what I love without guilt: realistic fiction. So while I’d like to balance out the other genres a bit more, I’m perfectly fine with reading realistic fiction 50% of the time. Those ‘reading harder’ challenges might be for some, but not for me right now. 

The bottom line? Read what sets your reading heart on fire. 

Book Recomendations:

This is a newer category of bookish data for me to track. I tend to rely on my inner reading circles for book recommendations: friends, family and colleagues that I’m close with. But if my goal is to broaden my reading life so I can broaden my life in the process (and it is!), then I need to broaden who I connect with to find my next book to read, too.

I won’t give myself a gold star in this area, but I will say I’ve made progress. In fact, over 50% of the books I’ve read came from online recommendations, particularly podcasts and Facebook groups. And they didn’t disappoint.

So, for 2022, I’d like to continue this upward trend and find new sources for book recommendations, particularly for books written by BIPOC authors. 

What's Next?

Well, there you have it: a reflection on my reading life in 2021. I hope this inspired you to think about how YOU track your reading life and how it can enrich your actual life in the process. If you’re not yet sure how to track your own reading life, here are five different ways to track your reading life in the coming year. And if you’d like to take a look at my bookish spreadsheet and make it your own, then you can grab it here, too.

One more thing: if you’d like a bit of support in growing your own reading (and writing!) life in the coming year, then you might like to take a peek at my Get Lit(erate) digital deliveries of literate love. For just $5 a month, you’ll get access to monthly themed book lists, writing prompts, on-demands workshops and classes, virtual book club societies and more. It will help you cultivate a life you love one book and one page at a time. 

So, what are your reading goals for 2022? Share in the comments so we can help each other reach them!