Timy’s Reading Goals in 2023

As you can see from my Top 10 Reads of 2022 post, I read considerably less in 2022 and I don’t think that’ll change much in 2023, especially with SPFBO in the mix. But that’s not to say I don’t have a couple of reading goals in 2023. Buckle up peeps, because this is going to be one long-ass post with a lot of books mentioned. Hey, it might help grow your TBR. It looks so abandoned and sad 😉

I will try to be more active this year and post monthly updates about how my different reading challenges/goals are going, including recommendations for prompts in The Sound of Madness Reading Challenge. I will also come back to this post in December and look at what I actually achieved in my reading goals in 2023.

UPDATE: It’s the end of 2023, so I thought I’d add updates to this post as I look back at the year. I’ll mark these updates with a purple color so it would be clear they are new additions.

As for monthly updates… well… that lasted for about half a year. I ran out of enthusiasm, and I think it didn’t really help that I fell a bit behind schedule after my accident in the summer, and I just wasn’t interested enough to put effort into catching up and focused instead of getting on track with SPFBO and everything else. In 2024 I’m starting a monthly newsletter so we’ll see how that will go.

GoodReads Reading Challenge

Since I failed at 50 books last year with my 40 read ones, I decided to lower my expectations. 40 sounds like a comfortable number I can achieve in 2023 too.

UPDATE: As it turns out, I once again need to eat my own words. 2023 brought a much better reading year for me. I opened 66 books overall (not included those I read in my SPFBO 9 batch, which is 5 books, neither of which I finished). Out of those 66 books, 12 were rereads (I read A Rake of His Own 4 times, and only 3 were rereads…, and I read The Very Secret Society of Witches twice, only one counting as a reread), I DNF-ed 10 books (planning to return to one of them), and had 3 beta reads (all very good, including Card Mage: Slumdog Deckbuilder which is already published). All in all, not too shabby.

Womble’s TBR Reduction Challenge

This seemed like a fun challenge, so I jumped on board. I don’t think I’ll participate in each month, and definitely not doing the stretch goals, but I’ll try nonetheless. There is a theme for each month to help to reduce your TBR (anything added BEFORE January 1st, 2023). I’ll try and match it with my narrowed-down TBR I’ll talk about below. If you follow Womble on Twitter, you can get handy reminders of each prompt at the beginning of the month.

You can check out Womble’s TBR Reduction Challenge HERE.

UPDATE: I kept up with this challenge until the summer, and when my challenge update posts stopped, I stopped paying attention to this… but I’ll go and look again, so I might be able to complete all the prompts! I did this challenge with the same attitude as I did with The Sound of Madness, I read books, and then later I went to see if they fit any of the given prompts. As I was determined to get as many books off my self-made reading list for 2023, this worked out nicely, it seems. Let’s see how I did (titles linked to my review where it applies):

January – End to End Temptation: The Thirteenth Hour by Trudie Skies as this was the last book I added to my TBR in 2022.

February – Short Steps: The King Must Fall anthology by Grimdark Magazine. We were supposed to read 28 short stories, and this anthology only has 19, but no one will tell on me to Womble, right?!

March – Fresh Starts: The Lord of Stariel by A.J. Lancaster. I cheated once again, because this wasn’t the first book of a new to me series. It was a reread, BUT I wanted to complete a stretch goal, which for March was to finish said series, which I did. I read all 5 books in the Stariel series in 2023. I read the 5th book 4 times, in fact…

April – Open and Shut Case: Daughters of Night by Laura Shepherd-Robinson. The only standalone I read in April, which was the prompt about. Also, I loved it. So much so, that since I read all of Shepherd-Robinson‘s published novels and I can’t wait for more!

May – Crowning Glory?: Gods of the Wyrdwood by RJ Barker. We had to pick a book about a revolution or a change of those in power. Out of the books I read in May, this fit the bill the most. A small village stands up to the Empire, so I think that shall count.

June – Long Reading Days or Longest Nights: We were required to read the longest book on our TBR. I skipped this challenge as I was catching up with ARCs and SPFBO reading, plus long books intimidate me…

July – Holidays Are Coming!: We were required to read a book by the author who lives the furthest from us on our TBR. I skipped this challenge again as I was catching up with reading and other stuff after my hospital spell.

August – Holiday Treats: Double or Nothing by Craig Schaefer. We were given free rein to pick off any book from our TBR. My goal for this year was to catch up with the Faust series, but I only ended up reading this book (which is the 7th) and then promptly never got around to reviewing it…

September – Seven Deadly Tempts: The Ashes of London by Andrew Taylor. We had to pick a book that’s linked to one of the deadly sins. I think The Ashes of London ticks wrath (the murderer kills out of revenge), but it also can work for greed too (one of the characters basically robs one of the MCs, his niece’s inheritance). Andrew Taylor certainly has more than 7 published works, so that’s my stretch goal done, yay!

October – Spooky Season Cometh: The Witchwood Knot by Olivia Atwater. Look at me, cheating again. I haven’t read any books in October that were on my TBR before the start of the year, but I can pretend I’ve been looking forward to reading any book Olivia might publish this year after I fell in love with Small Miracles in 2022. That counts, right? Right. And look at that, I’ve done another stretch goal! The Witchwood Knot definitely has dark themes, ghosts, and deadly fae, and a lot of it happens during the night, as the MC walks around the building in a dreamscape of sorts.

November – Small Press Big Stories: I think I cheated enough already, so I restrained myself from doing so again (please bow down before my generosity). The only indie book I read in November was Rich Men, Dead Men by Michael Dylan, but I didn’t put it on my TBR until April of 2023, so… it doesn’t count. But I’m sure you see what I did here ????

December – Don’t Forget to Say Thank You: Since I’m the only one who is gifting books to myself most of the time, I would have been hard-stretched to pick anything for this prompt (though I do have a couple I need to get to as such), even without my HUGE reading slump. This resulted in me only doing audiobook rereads this month *sigh* So no pick from me.

All in all, I did much better than I thought I did. Cheatings aside. I completed 8 out of 12 prompts, and got 3 stretch goals ticked at that! I’m quite proud of myself. Thank you, Womble for putting this together!

The Sound of Madness Reading Challenge

The Sound of Madness is of course back for its third year! I already got the introduction post up, but here is a quick rundown: I have 25 music-based prompts, and I’ll attempt to fill out my bingo-like card during 2023. 1 will use 1 book/prompt, and only books read in 2023 will count. I had a LOT of fun coming up with the prompts, so I hope more people will join me in this one.

Check out The Sound of Madness Reading Challenge HERE

UPDATE: Just in case you are too lazy to look it up, I’ll let you know that I finished my card! Here it is in it’s full glory:

It wasn’t exactly planned, but one day I woke up and decided I needed a narrowed-down TBR to focus on in 2023. On this list, I have books I’ve been pushing back, books that will be released in 2023, and SPFBO 8 finalists. Most of these I already own in some form, so it’d be a nice opportunity to reduce my own TBR.

At this time, I’m planning to stick around for SPFBO 9, which means there are a whole lot of books I can’t account for. And then there is something called “mood” that can totally fuck up everything. Also sales. Especially Audible ones. So, as much as I’d like to focus on the 45 books I collected (by the end of January, because of course I kept adding to the list even as I worked on this post…), it’s very likely I’ll only read a fraction of them. But hey, a girl can dream.

And this is where this post is going to get really long as I intend to list all of the books and some info about them. I will come back to take a look at this list at the end of the year and see how I fared. If you’d like to know more about the books, clicking on the titles will take you to their respective GoodReads pages. I’ll update this post once the yet-to-be-announced covers and info will be available.

UPDATE: I honestly did better than I thought I would with this list. I wasn’t very good with my backlist, but I think most of them will go to my 2024 reading list, and we’ll see if I’ll do any better. Lucky for me, one of these titles became an SPFBO 9 finalist, so I won’t have any excuses not to read it!

2023 Releases

	Title: We Dream of Gods Author: Devin Madson Series: The Reborn Empire #4 Publisher: Orbit Release Date: March 21, 2023	REVIEW
	Title: The Cleaving Author: Juliet E. McKenna Series: standalone Publisher: Angry Robot Release Date: April 11, 2023	REVIEW
	Title: The Square of Sevens Author: Laura Shepherd-Robinson Series: standalone Publisher: Mantle (Pan Macmillan) Release Date: June 22, 2023	REVIEW
	Title: The Book That Wouldn’t Burn Author: Mark Lawrence Series: The Book That Wouldn’t Burn #1 Publisher: Ace Release Date: May 11, 2023	REVIEW
	Title: TBA Author: RJ Dark Series: Mal and Jackie #3 Publisher: Waveback Release Date: TBA	It wasn’t published 🙁
	Title: Gods of the Wyrdwood Author: RJ Barker Series: Forsaken #1 Publisher: Orbit Release Date: June 27, 2023	REVIEW
	Title: Between Savage Tides Author: Anela Deen Series: The Bitter Sea Trilogy #2 Publisher: Fine Fables Press Release Date: December 1, 2023	It wasn’t published 🙁
	Title: The Wise Men of Gotham Author: Craig Schaefer Series: The Hungry Dreaming Trilogy #2 Publisher: Demimonde Books Release Date: TBA	REVIEW
	Title: TBA Author: Sadir S. Samir Series: The God Dust Saga #2 Publisher: Self-Published Release Date: TBA	It wasn’t published 🙁
	Title: Slumdog Deckbuilder Author: Benedict Patrick Series: Card Mage #1 Publisher: Self-Published Release Date: TBA	READ

Requests

	Title: Dawn Razed Author: Josh Erikson Series: Ethereal Earth #4 Publisher: Self-Published Release Date: December 13, 2022	REVIEW
	Title: Songbird Author: Karen Heenan Series: The Tudor Court #1 Publisher: Self-Published Release Date: December 3, 2021	REVIEW
	Title: Empire’s Daughter Author: Marian L. Thorpe Series: Empire’s Legacy #1 Publisher: Self-Published Release Date: February 18, 2015	REVIEW
	Title: The King Must Fall Author: VA Series: anthology Publisher: Grimdark Magazine Release Date: May 31, 2022	REVIEW

SPFBO 8 Finalists

	Title: Mysterious Ways Author: Abbie Evans Series: standalone Publisher: Self-Published Release Date: August 3, 2021	I opted out from reading it
	Title: A Song of the Void Author: Andrew C. Piazza Series: standalone Publisher: Self-Published Release Date: July 15, 2020	REVIEW
	Title: Scales and Sensibility Author: Stephanie Burgis Series: Regency Dragons #1 Publisher: Self-Published Release Date: October 4, 2021	REVIEW
	Title: Tethered Spirits Author: T. A. Hernandez Series: standalone Publisher: Self-Published Release Date: December 14, 2021	REVIEW
	Title: The Thirteenth Hour Author: Trudie Skies Series: The Cruel Gods #1 Publisher: Self-Published Release Date: September 29, 2021	REVIEW

Backlist

	Title: The Court of Mortals Author: A.J. Lancaster Series: Sariel #3 Publisher: Camberion Press Release Date: January 18, 2020	REVIEW
	Title: The King of Faerie Author: A.J. Lancaster Series: Sariel #4 Publisher: Camberion Press Release Date: July 24, 2021	REVIEW
	Title: The House of Shattered Wings Author: Aliette de Bodard Series: Dominion of the Fallen #1 Publisher: Gollancz Release Date: August 20, 2015	Maybe in 2024…
	Title: Night Latch Author: Anela Deen Series: The Locksmith #1 Publisher: Fine Fables Press Release Date: October 1, 2019	Maybe in 2024…
	Title: The Keeper of Happy Endings Author: Barbara Davis Series: standalone Publisher: Lake Union Publishing Release Date: October 1, 2021	Maybe in 2024…
	Title: Double or Nothing Author: Craig Schaefer Series: Daniel Faust #7 Publisher: Demimonde Books Release Date: June 27, 2017	READ
	Title: The Neon Boneyard Author: Craig Schaefer Series: Daniel Faust #8 Publisher: Demimonde Books Release Date: April 10, 2018	Maybe in 2024…
	Title: The Locust Job Author: Craig Schaefer Series: Daniel Faust #9 Publisher: Demimonde Books Release Date: January 1, 2020	Maybe in 2024…
	Title: Any Minor World Author: Craig Schaefer Series: The Midnight Jury #1 Publisher: Demimonde Books Release Date: April 26, 2022	Maybe in 2024…
	Title: Bindle Punk Bruja Author: Desideria Mesa Series: standalone Publisher: Harper Voyager Release Date: September 13, 2022	Maybe in 2024…
	Title: The Ninth Rain Author: Jen Williams Series: The Winnowing Flame Trilogy #1 Publisher: Headline Release Date: February 23, 2017	Maybe in 2024…
	Title: The Cloisters Author: Katy Hays Series: standalone Publisher: Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Bantam Press Release Date: November 1, 2022	Maybe in 2024…
	Title: Thorn Author: Intisar Khanani Series: Dauntless Path #1 Publisher: HarperTeen Release Date: March 24, 2020	Maybe in 2024…
	Title: Big Little Lies Author: Liane Moriarty Series: standalone Publisher: Berkley Books Release Date: February 9, 2017	Maybe in 2024…
	Title: A Secret History of Witches Author: Louisa Morgan Series: standalone Publisher: Orbit Release Date: September 5, 2017	Maybe in 2024…
	Title: The Age of Witches Author: Louisa Morgan Series: standalone Publisher: Redhook Release Date: April 7, 2020	Maybe in 2024…
	Title: The Last Smile in Sunder City Author: Luke Arnold Series: The Fetch Phillips Archives #1 Publisher: Orbit Release Date: February 6, 2020	Maybe in 2024…
	Title: The Hidden Author: Melanie Golding Series: standalone Publisher: Crooked Lane Books Release Date: November 9, 2021	Maybe in 2024…
	Title: The Lincoln Lawyer Author: Michael Connelly Series: The Lincoln Lawyer #1 Publisher: Little, Brown and Company Release Date: October 3, 2005	Maybe in 2024…
	Title: Murder at Spindle Manor Author: Morgan Stang Series: standalone Publisher: Self-Published Release Date: October 20, 2022	Definitely in 2024!!
	Title: Half a Soul Author: Olivia Atwater Series: Regency Faerie Tales #1 Publisher: Release Date:	REVIEW
	Title: The Deathless Author: Peter Newman Series: The Deathless Trilogy #1 Publisher: Harper Voyager Release Date: June 14, 2018	Maybe in 2024…
	Title: Black Sun Author: Rebecca Roanhorse Series: Between Earth and Sky #1 Publisher: Saga Press Release Date: October 13, 2020	Maybe in 2024…
	Title: Age of Assassins Author: RJ Barker Series: The Wounded Kingdom #1 Publisher: Orbit Release Date: August 1, 2017	Maybe in 2024…
	Title: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches Author: Sangu Mandanna Series: standalone Publisher: Berkley Books Release Date: August 23, 2022	REVIEW
	Title: The Ashes of London Author: Andrew Taylor Series: Marwood and Lovett #1 Publisher: HarperCollins Release Date: April 7, 2016	REVIEW

And those, my friends, were my reading goals for 2023. Let me know if you have any goals for 2024, be it reading challenges, or books you particularly want to read.