2024 is here and well underway by this point. No one is wishing Happy New Years anymore, February is practically here and then we’ll forget we even had a break to begin with. I didn’t plan for my first of the year to be so late but here we are. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, got plenty of reading done, and have already added plenty of books to your TBR pile for 2024.
I have been looking at what I want my goals for this year to be and I am keeping it simple and relatively easy to strive for. I think my evergreen goal is trying to read a lot more Aussie YA. It was the first 2024 goal I made at the end of last year and already have failed because there are so many nice and shiny books from overseas. Of the eight books I have read so far this year, one is from the #LoveOzYA group, even the two I am half way through are both overseas stories. But I have plenty of time. The problem is I wish it was easier to search for them. The #LoveOzYA team fought hard to get the term recognised, I just need bookshops and libraries to have it as a category I can look up. There’s some great lists on Goodreads, I don’t think StoryGraph does lists the same way, if it does I’ve yet to discover it. Right now I am being guided by the #LoveOzYA website, their blog, lists and tags people put on social media, and looking up authors I already know that fit into that category. Of course I also need to read the back catalogue on my own shelves which is also part of my goal. So many potentially great Aussie YA books sitting unread on my shelf.
The problem is those overseas books are so tempting, so I am not making it a sole goal. But one I hope if I put some effort in to I shall achieve. The rise of audiobooks must be a help, but I fear it will be a wait before any back catalogues get converted. I’m doing it partly because I want to find more local authors, but I also need less USA high school books. Or at least if it’s going to be overseas YA it can’t be in a high school. Somehow the UK and Australians can make YA that isn’t set so heavily in the halls of a high school, I like those ones. But that is a me problem, I think I need a break from cheerleaders and football and not quite ready to jump further into the US fantasy quite yet. Years ago they had a great Book Bingo Challenge which I loved. I might make up my own one to aid me. What I need is a #LoveOzYA Challenge like the old Australian Women Writers where there’s goals to aim for. Oh, I may have given myself an idea of a challenge I definitely don’t have time to make but do kinda desperately want to make…I’ll keep you posted.
Away from that I have set my goal at 80 books again, hopefully we can be a bit less dramatic come December when I need to have finished. I am also creating my Book Bingo so that will go up soon as well. My plan was to less intense in January in terms of posting, but that has slackened further now it being the end of January and all with nothing posted yet, but I’ll get there. Keeping it fun and casual I tell myself. Fighting against my organisational instincts and keeping it casual like I promised myself last year.
Next week is my blogiversary, the one post I can’t skip. I have my Top Five up for grabs as well as a few other books I’ve loved. It’s times like this I wish I’d reviewed more because it’s hard to push books you love when there aren’t many reviews to read up on to tell you why I loved it. I will get the reviews up as soon as possible though because I need to tell you about these amazing books.
Other than that I am gearing up for a more relaxed year, reviews when I can, trying not to hold myself too accountable so I am not guilt ridden, but also balancing it so I don’t go full on neglect either.
Shouldn’t be too hard, right?
