On New Year’s Day 2021 I took to Facebook in a rare moment of pride to share a list of the books I had read over the past year. You see, I have been tracking my reading fairly (not perfectly) consistently since 2016. While I had managed to capture every book in 2020, I didn’t feel compelled to share publicly. However, in 2021 I surpassed my reading goal so wonderfully that I thought what the heck! Let’s shout this from the rooftops and just maybe it will inspire someone else to pick up a book. Not to mention, my other half and I have a healthy little rivalry when it comes to the annual book count! I’ll keep it simple this time with sharing the post and images below.

And as for 2022? Well, at the time of writing, I’m on track with 48/75 books completed. Though I must admit my plan for Diana Gabaldon’s latest book failed (it’s in progress, it’s just so, so big that I need more vacation time to really work on it). In addition to setting a very high goal for 2022 I also am determined to read more widely across genres, more Canadian authors, more diverse authors, more indie, and across more platforms (oh hello, Scribd, I am happy to add you into the rotation).

My 2021 Facebook post as-is:

Happy New Year!

While I don’t like to post much these days, I want to share what for me was one of the best parts of 2021 – reading soooo many books! I set a goal of 50 books and surpassed that, finishing my 77th book around 11pm last night. I look forward to my target of 75 books in 2022, kicking it off with Diana Gabaldon’s “Go Tell the Bees that I am Gone”, and hopefully followed by the many books from wonderful Wordsworth Books, as well as several indie ebook titles, that I managed to accumulate in the past year.

It was so gratifying to read widely across genres from a diverse array of authors, and doing this over several platforms. Fun fact: I’m fortunate to call two authors of these books FB friends! While a fair number of the books I read were good old paperbacks/hardcovers, I also gave my Libby app (free app linked to my WPL account) a solid workout with many audiobooks, as well as many ebooks via Kindle and Apple Books, including several ebooks I purchased (or received in return for reviews) direct from indie authors.

Happy reading!

(slight edit just to note that the hard-to-see box set between Apples Never Fall and Circe is the wonderfully steamy Masquerade series by Valerie Francis).

Thanks for being here,

Alyssa