Our Marketing and Outreach Associate, Rebecca Boudreau, periodically writes a blog for us highlighting her reading.  This month, Becca asks: do you set reading goals for yourself?

I’m not much of a goal-setter in my everyday life, but ever since 2016 I have set myself a reading goal; because what with work, hobbies, social activities, and the sheer amount of content I could possibly be streaming, I wanted to make sure that I didn’t lose my love of reading, and I wanted to make reading a real priority in my life. 

I like to set myself both a number goal and a content goal every year. That way I make sure I am reading a decent number of books (and it forces me to choose reading over tv), but also a good variety (not only for myself but because part of my job as a librarian is to give recommendations). I always try to include a few non-fiction books every year, a classic I’ve never read, and sometimes even children’s or young adult books so that I can give recommendations to younger patrons or parents. 

I have been setting a goal of 50 books per year for the past few years. I think that is a respectable number that is achievable (for someone who works full time at least!), but doesn’t become a burdensome slog. My to-be-read list is currently at 378 books and counting, but working at the front desk of the library, I am constantly seeing new books I want to read coming across the desk, so I usually assign myself 25 specific titles and let myself discover the other 25 throughout the year. That way I never get to a place where I don’t know what to read next! This year, to help me decide which books I wanted on my list, I went through my Goodreads account, where I keep my list of all of the books I want to read, and I noticed a few books had been added more than once. I went through my entire list, pulling out all of the duplicates, and found that I had 24 books I had saved multiple times! So, all of those are going on the list this year because I apparently REALLY want to read them! 

Now, without further ado, here are my reading goals for 2023!