I set several reading goals this year. The main one being my Read Off My Shelf challenge.

After I counted and logged all my books, I decided that reading 50 books from my current hoard stash of books was a good goal, with a stretch goal set at 75. My overall reading goal for 2023 is 156 (3 books per week). So 50 off my TBR bookcase, nearly a third of my overall goal, means 1 out of every 3 books I read should be off my shelf.

The catch? I pledged not to buy any new books until I clear those 50 off my TBR bookcase.

To keep me on track, I’ll be posting a monthly reading wrap-up on the last day of each month. The end of January is here, so let’s see my January reading stats.

(I also created a page listing all 321 to-be-read books. As I read one, I mark it off the list as visuals help keep me focused.)

I read 20 books in January and started another one but I won’t finish until tomorrow. And I read every day. I also reread another 23 books (or rather re-listens as these were all audiobooks), but I’m not including the rereads in my stats.

Of the 20 new books I read:

• 17 finished
• 3 DNFs (did not finish)
• 8 came from my TBR for the Read Off My Shelf
• 9 checked out from the library
• 2 were audiobooks
• 1 was a pre-order that I got on 31 December and read the next day and so it didn’t have time to be added to the TBR list
• 10 met prompts from my other reading challenges
• 7 were nonfiction

The 17 books total 6,477 pages (for the audiobooks, I used the print versions to get the total pages). This is the first year I also set a page goal in addition to a book goal. My 2023 page goal is 48,000 total pages (4,000 pages a month) and so I’m ahead by 2,400 pages. If the next few months go as well as January, I will probably raise that goal.

The shortest book had 164 pages and the longest book had 592 pages with an average of 362 pages.

Of the 20 books, there were 12 female authors and 6 male authors and 3 are minorities.. Eleven authors are from the United States, 1 from Australia, 1 from Malaysia, 1 from Sweden, 2 from Canada, and 2 from the United Kingdom.

My average rating for the 17 books I finished was 2.96 stars (out of 5 stars). My top two reads were Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty by Dorothy Roberts (5 stars) and The Poetry of Strangers: What I Learned Traveling America with a Typewriter by Brian Sonia-Wallace (4 stars).

Nearly half of the books I read were non-fiction (41%). I’m pretty happy with that stat as I usually tend to skew hard to fiction, in particular fantasy and romance. I’m trying to incorporate more non-fiction reads into the mix. The genres/sub-genres included romance, SciFi, fantasy, memoir, nature, mystery, science, history, race/feminism, and young adult.

So I’ve started off 2023 strong. If I can continue to read 8 TBR books a month, I’ll easily exceed my 50 TBR book goal. And don’t think I haven’t already started a list of books books I want to buy.

Looking ahead, books already on the pile for February to meet my various reading challenges:

• The Singles Table by Sara Desai (#roll100, TBR)
• The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon (#roll100, TBR)
• Elsewhere by Alexis Schatkin (#roll100, TBR)
• The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See (12 Challenge)
• Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen (postcard, TBR)
• Bindle Punk Bruja by Desideria Mesa (Litsy Markup Postal Book Club)
• Mind of the Raven by Bernd Heinrich (#naturalitsy)

I’ll also have 2 more TBR books added for #bookspin but bookspin numbers aren’t announced until the 2nd of each month.

What were your favorite reads in January? What’s on your February TBR? Share your faves in the comments.

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