Reading Plans for 2024 and Beyond - Mid-Year Update! 

Has it been SIX months already? Apparently so.. Which means the statutory progress report. So, how have I been doing? Reasonably OK I think. 

Following the Labels   

This year's task was to bump up the lowest of my Label buckets into at least double figures – or, at the very least, nudge them in that general direction. To date I’ve managed to get BoB (Battle of Britain), Education, India, and Language to 10 with Scandinavia following soon. That’s a pretty good half-year, I think! Some of the super-low bucket counts still need some concentrated TLC, but I’m working on that. 

The ‘Knowledge Streams’    

As predicted my ‘Britain Alone’ and, rather surprisingly, ‘World War to Cold War’ had some notable attention and I even managed to drop in a few ‘USA:WTF’ reads which helped me to understand that strange country a little more. A little more to come – in scattershot fashion – in all 3 areas. 

The ‘Wild Cards’     

Also as predicted at the top of the year, my ‘wild cards’ have (for the most part) remained caged and rubbing themselves against the bars. A few *might* be allowed to see the light of day at some point. My ‘Random Book Generator’ has, against all the odds, yet to randomly generate a single book. 

Finishing/Progressing Series   

I have managed to finish ONE series this year – The 4 'Ghost' books – and will be finishing off the original Holmes books before Christmas. I’ll be progressing the Dune and Foundation series during the 2nd half of the year (towards the end I think) but I think that’ll be it. I’ve got at least 3-4 more series either started or not quite finished. When I get to them, I’m not 100% sure. I’ll also TRY not to start any more series before I finish one I’m already reading. 

Book length & the Review Pile   

My To Be Reviewed Pile is a healthy 7 at the moment which is manageable. It was at 10 for a while but a few longer books took care of that. I’m hoping to maintain it at around 6-7 so I can actually remember what the book was about in order to review it properly. After 380 books recorded by average page length presently stands at 291pp down from 341pp back in Jan 2022. It's been 291pp for a while now and the rate of drop is most definitely slowing down. I don’t expect it to drop much below 290pp by New Year’s. 

Classics and Re-Reads   

My only re-reads (so far) this year have been my ongoing re-read of the Sherlock Holmes books with Marian over @ Classics Considered. There’s just two more to go here, but there will be one or two more re-reads to follow. My Classics aim for this year was 15. To date I’ve reviewed 14 (with one more already in my review pile) so – Target Achieved! There will be a ‘few’ more to follow. 2024 will be a Classic Year, I think. 

Deep Dives   

I’ve enjoyed the ‘Deep’ Dives I’ve managed this year – 3 to date – and I have some more to come, indeed I’m presently reading one (about the origins of WW1) right now. So I’m looking to include at least 3 more this year – and that’ll probably turn into 4 or more. I’m still tempted at doing a REALLY deep dive (5+ books on a single subject) but I’m worried that I’d either bore myself or you guys. I’m still musing a bit on that one. 

Oh, and some Fun   

I have, I think, dropped the odd (and sometimes very odd) ‘fun’ book into my reading schedule to either liven or lighten things up a bit. I think a few notables are Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi and The Humans by Matt Haig. I’ll see about dropping in one or two in the 2nd half of the year. I do have a few odd title connected sets in mind which might throw up some interesting combinations of things. I’ve also just completed putting together something I have had in mind for a while now but that won’t be coming off until the end of this year or (most likely) early next year at the earliest.  

Overall, so far, I think I’m doing OK goals-wise. I’m expecting the rest of the year to be fun, interesting and possibly a little crazy book-wise. I guess we’ll see!