My 2021 Reading Challenge: 10 goals to expand my literary horizons

Now that our New Year’s resolutions are starting to wane (congrats, if yours aren’t), I thought it was time to set some reading goals. This isn’t something I normally do, but my TBR list continues to grow exponentially, so I find myself needing some kind of strategy. As always, so many books, so little time.

One trend that started a few years ago was to encourage readers to step outside their normal reading habits through checklists that include prompts such as, “a book about a woman in STEM”, or “a book featuring one of the seven deadly sins”. Sounds fine,h but I wanted to develop my own goals and challenges for what I want to tackle in 2021. It’s not the first time I’ve done this (see blogs Sept 2019) but I’m excited to challenge myself and expand my literary horizons. Hopefully, you can find some goals and books to add to your own list as well.

Read a biography about a historical figure I know nothing about
Self-Made by A’Lelia Bundles

Read a book about books
Bowie’s Bookshelf by John O’Connell

Read a horror novel
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

Read a book everyone talked about in 2020
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

Read a book before its TV adaptation premieres
Milk Fed by Melissa Broder

Read more queer novels
The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar

Read a historical fiction novel set in a non-western location
Cantoris by Caroline De Robertis

Revisit a classic novel
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway 

Read a big book
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Read a book to inspire me
Let Us Dream by Pope Francis

Let me know if you have any reading goals or books to challenge yourself.
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Please don’t stop wearing your masks. Please get the vaccine when you can and talk to your friends and family to be sure they get it too. Above all, stay hopeful.

​In the meantime, happy reading!
Joni