Quarter 1 check-in
Earlier in the year, I developed some guidelines to walk me through in my selection of books and entertainment for 2023 (here).
In order to be truly accountable (to myself but it is easier when I do so “publicly”), I wanted to check in with myself and share with you the progress (if any) I made so far and if I need to reroute some of my focus in the next weeks and months!
And there is one more premise: this is what I want for myself right now. This process could put pressure and I am okay with the process today; please do not walk through this process if it impacts your mental health. Mental health is always one’s priority. It must, this is what matters the most.
With that preamble, let’s start from one of my most important soft goals of the year, finishing series. I feel this achievement was a mixed bag the past quarter. Yet, if consider my soft DNFs (mostly focusing on the 80s fantasy series I started) as completed series, I will help my own case. This is an important point though; one needs to feel comfortable in moving past series that are not enticing; it is okay to indicate that the focus needs to be on something else. There are only so many series and books one can read in a year and in one’s life. So I need to learn that I can decide to move past series that are not convincing me.
Now, my brain is not fully on board, as I often find myself reflecting on series I have not completed. At the same time, there are a few series that did not speak to me so much and so I want to feel empowered to move on. As I said, I am still learning to put less pressure on myself.
At this point, I have finished a few series, including The Echoes Saga, Texicalaan and Threadlight. At this point in time, I a few series going that I want to focus on (and complete) in the next weeks: The Drowning empire series by Andrea Stewart; The Onyxborn Chronicle by D.W. Ross: The Song of the Shattered Sands by Bradley Beaulieu and the Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
These series are my priority in the following weeks, provided that I can only progress up to a certain point with some of them (in particular the Onyxborn Chronicle - I will want to wait on the audiobook to drop to complete the series).
I also feel that my fantasy game is quite well established. While I read 43 books at the time I am publishing this post in the year (and that is pretty good overall; in fact, I am doing quite well if I say so myself, I am way ahead of my 100 books for the year!). With that said, I believe the vast majority is fantasy (about 28 of them). Let’s see if I can push 100 fantasy books in the year but it might be difficult as I have a few chokers in the past and in the near future.
I had some other few guidance topics that I wanted to keep in my mind while selecting books to read: Cosmere, Ursula K. Le Guin, 80s fantasy and the Forgotten Realms.
My year in the Cosmere is going quite well. I have been pretty good with my consistency; I read one book a month and I even read the secret project 2 (although it has nothing to do with the Cosmere). So I do not think I need to do much here; with that said, I need to start with the Mistborn era two as soon as possible. Maybe in April, maybe in May.
My year dedicated to Ursula K. LeGuin is less successful; I really just focused on A wizard of Earthsea. What I would like to do moving forward is to prioritize those reads for the next quarter. In fact, I have the next three books in the Earthsea series and I like the idea of keep reading the books in the evenings before going to sleep.
As for the 80s fantasy journey, I am doing better than I expected. I have been reading two authors I planned to (Elizabeth Moon and Barbara Hambly); although neither stuck (these are my soft DNFs of the year so far) but I love my exploration so far. I believe Legend by David Gemmell should be the next on the list; what I would like to do, slowly, is making my way through the series although it is quite long so I need to give myself time and slowly proceed.
Finally, my historical fiction game is not doing well. I read a few books but I am not fully focusing on historical fiction; if I remember correctly, May is usually dedicated to historical fiction (there is a reading challenge dedicated to it). It might be the shot in the arm my reading needs and I could got through the Thomas Cromwell series by Hilary Mantel. I would also love to go back to the Century trilogy by Ken Follett. All of them are pretty thick tomes though. Let’s see what I can achieve in this field in the next weeks and months.
How is your reading year going? Are you satisfied with the progress so far? Do you have tweaks that you want to implement to your reading? Comment down below with a pile of books emoji below!
