Setting some goals for my reading in 2024

I managed to read a lot more last year than I expected (see my review of the year here), but it was surprisingly one note. Although I was pleased that unlike the previous year, I read far more female than male authors, it was generally a fairly uniform list, dominated by novels, and even similar genres!

So for this year’s reading I thought I’d make an effort to stretch myself a little. I’ve set myself a few reading challenges over the years, mostly relating to my 30 Before 30 list (such as to read Jane Eyre and the BBC’s 100 Novels that Shaped Our World list). While I’ve enjoyed these, with life looking as it does now (with a beautiful baby to look after) and less time on my hands, I thought I’d go for the looser ‘resolutions’ rather than ‘challenges’ to guide this year’s reading choices. So here they are. I’d love to hear yours! Do you agree with my resolutions, and might you try any of them yourself?

Read more biographies

As a young nerd growing up in provincial England, I used to love reading biographies. The insight they gave into other places and people fascinated me, and fulfilled a need to look beyond the borders of my at that time rather narrow world. But it’s been a long time since I was in the habit of reading either biographies or autobiographies. They have the same advantages they did for my younger self though: a way of learning about the world through other people’s experiences. So I’d like to reignite this love, and discover some new lives.

Read more plays

With a young child, it seems unlikely that I’ll be getting to see that many plays any time soon. In fact plays have always been a bit of a blind-spot for me; the theatre isn’t an area I’ve ever been particularly engaged with. There are some classics which I’ve neither read nor seen, so I’d like to make an effort to read (or perhaps even watch filmed performances) of these, and up my cultural knowledge a bit.

Read more poetry

I read quite a bit of poetry in 2022, and enjoyed exploring collections of new poetry by people I’d never heard of. But this fell off completely in 2023, and I don’t think I read a single collection. This year I’d like to take up reading contemporary poetry again, whilst also doing some dives into classic poetry of the past. I never know quite how to read poetry; it feels a bit odd to just sit down and plough through a whole book. I feel I should be reading it aloud. However, I always enjoy it when I do bother, so I’ll be bothering a bit more this year!

Borrow more library books

Thanks in large part to the generosity of family and friends giving me vouchers, my reading was largely on my Kindle last year. But in the past I’ve found my library’s digital app a brilliant way to discover new authors, books I’d never have found otherwise, and things I’d like to give a go but don’t necessarily trust enough to spend money on. Libraries are just such brilliant institutions, so it’s also great to support them however we can. So I’ll be making a return to the app this year, and making the most of all it can offer.

Rekindle my love of physical books

This is a little bit of a wildcard, as my reading for the past several years has been almost exclusively digital. I just find it so much easier to fit in than physical books: I can read in the dark, one handed, and almost weightlessly! However I do have a very large collection of physical books. The majority are still in the UK (in the kind guardianship of family), but even here I have a lot, and I keep being gifted more! So I’m going to try to use precious quiet hours I have relatively to myself to pick up an actual book again, and try to work my way through some of the many unread books in my possession.

Read more non-fiction

Beyond official studying (or at least the subjects that I studied) I’ve never been in a particularly strong habit of reading non-fiction. I think almost every non-fiction book I read last year was pregnancy related! But there are so many fascinating, thought-provoking, and knowledge expanding books out there that it seems a waste not to add at least a few to my reading list. So this year, I’d like to balance the novels with something heftier, or at least more explicitly educational. I’m open to pretty much any topic (as long as it’s well written!), so please share any recommendations you have!

Actually read the Substacks I have subscribed to!

Not a book-based one, but still a reading one. Over the years I’ve subscribed to a number of Substacks (I think Roxane Gay’s was the first), always with good intentions to add something positive and interesting to my inbox. However, I’ve found that I hardly ever make time to actually read them, and they just clog up my inbox. This isn’t because I’m no longer interested in them, just that when I go to my inbox I’m rarely in the mood for reading. So I’m going to set aside some of my pure reading time (not inbox sorting time) to go back and read through the week’s Substack notes.

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Those were my reading resolutions for 2024. What did you think of them? Are there any you’ll be adopting yourself, or that you think I should add? I’d love to hear, so please do leave a comment!