2022 Reading and Reviewing Goals

2021's five-star or damn-near five-star reviews totaled 28, a marked decrease from last year's 46. Fewer authors saw their book launches rescheduled in 2021 than in 2020, but publishers still had to cancel many of their tours and events because issues around COVID-19 never get fewer. The inflationary pressure that supply-chain issues are exerting causes a lot of economic drag on the market, though there is as of yet a lot less trouble than I expected getting tree-book copies of things. It's not showing signs of too much change so far.

I want to keep my reading life simple. It is a great source of daily joy to me. I'll help myself best by making my intentions explicit on the first day of the new calendar year. So the year 2022 in the Common Era starts with my clear goals clearly stated:

➢to post 250 full, quote-studded reviews (not posts) here on my blog

➣to post three-sentence Burgoines of books I don't either adore or despise

➤to complete and post at least 275 total reviews of all types (ie, regulars, Burgoines and Pearl-Rule Burgoines) on all bookish social media sites I use: LibraryThing, Goodreads, Pinterest, NetGalley, Edelweiss+

Most important to me this year is to report on the many DRCs I don't care enough about to review at my usual, full reader-response with quotes, level. I don't want to keep just leaving them unacknowledged! There are publishers who want to see a solid, positive relationship between DRCs granted and reviews posted, and I do not blame them a bit. (I need to do more to sync the data on my reads between my blog, Goodreads, and LT this year for real. It's never been 1:1 but the drift is increasing.)

I've long Pearl Ruled books I'm not enjoying, but making notes on Goodreads & LibraryThing, still less here, about why I'm abandoning the read has been less successful. I gave up. I just didn't care about this goal as a separate goal, but I need to learn to because I *re*Pearl-Ruled five books this December just passed after not remembering picking them up in the first place. I realized how close my Half-heimer's is getting to the full-on article. Hence my decision to really track my Pearl Rules!

I've gotten Burgoineing organized below, settling the form into a scheduled habit, so I'll post your notice of Pearl-Ruled titles as General Comments there. I'll start counting them as reviews within that post.

I've decided to use BookRiot's 2022 Read Harder Challenge as a spice-me-up of meeting my reading goals. Since I've posted 225+ reviews (posts aren't the same as reviews posted, as some posts cover as many as four books!) on my blog in 2021 out of the 200 I set my sights on posting, I think I need to get a little more pushy for the stretch over 250...approximately 10% increase over this year's actual total...should be an additional 10%, so 275 in any of my three review categories, as the 2022 stretch.

This is their list:

1. Read a biography of an author you admire.


2. Read a book set in a bookstore.


3. Read any book from the Women’s Prize shortlist/longlist/winner list.


4. Read a book in any genre by a POC that’s about joy and not trauma. 30 THINGS I LOVE ABOUT MYSELF for the win!


5. Read an anthology featuring diverse voices.


6. Read a nonfiction YA comic.


7. Read a romance where at least one of the protagonists is over 40.


8. Read a classic written by a POC.


9. Read the book that’s been on your TBR the longest.


10. Read a political thriller by a marginalized author (BIPOC, or LGBTQIA+).


11. Read a book with an asexual and/or aromantic main character.


12. Read an entire poetry collection.


13. Read an adventure story by a BIPOC author.


14. Read a book whose movie or TV adaptation you’ve seen (but haven’t read the book).


15. Read a new-to-you literary magazine (print or digital).


16. Read a book recommended by a friend with different reading tastes.


17. Read a memoir written by someone who is trans or nonbinary.
    High-Risk Homosexual was a revelation!


18. Read a “Best _ Writing of the year” book for a topic and year of your choice.


19. Read a horror novel by a BIPOC author.


20. Read an award-winning book from the year you were born.


21. Read a queer retelling of a classic of the canon, fairytale, folklore, or myth.
    Briarley FTW! I can start calendar-2022 with one task accomplished.


22. Read a history about a period you know little about.


23. Read a book by a disabled author.


24. Pick a challenge from any of the previous years’ challenges to repeat!

I liked all of them except the comic and I'm still looking for GNs that don't make me want to scream and barf, so it's a good challenge. I will revise this post, and link to it as I check off items, during the year.

I'm wondering if, in lieu of setting a numerical goal for Burgoines (see this post), I could just agree with myself to use the technique on 3-stars-and-under reads about which I don't much care and still count them as reviews here...despite the technique being useful to prevent me driving myself mad trying to load overwork on myself. I've decided that I'll post 'em & collate 'em in each month's Burgoine post in gangs, once a month on the last Sunday in the month. I dunno, but I read a lot of books I don't talk about because someone loved it & I loathed it, or I just didn't care much about it, or I simply have no useful response to anything in it...it filled time, it failed to offend or delight me. Is that information useful to anyone? Would you care if I did that book you adored dirt by making a fast Burgoine or Pearl-Rule post and gored your reading ox?

I suppose we shall find out.