2024 Reading Challenge: January Wrap-up

January lasted a long time, but I’m still a little taken aback that it’s already February.

I might as well tell you that my reading goal for the past few years has been to finish one book a week. That means 52 books in a year. I didn’t quite reach this mark last year. I think I was 12 books off, but I just consoled myself by thinking that’s still a lot of books for somebody who doesn’t really have the time to read. I’m so perpetually exhausted that I tend to zonk out a paragraph in.

In any case, this year, I’m off to a good start. Sort of. The number of books I read in January is double my expectation. At the same time, I kind of flaked on the book I was supposed to be reading for my reading group (The Hobbit). Discussion night is tonight, so good luck with that.

I did manage to read eight books, which is not a number to sneeze at. Admittedly, a couple of them are DNFs from last year that I finally had the chance to finish.

Most of these books are from The Cat Who series. The first one I read is actually one of the DNFs from last year. It’s not that I didn’t like it; I just wasn’t in the right head space to get hooked by the story. Anyway, this time around, I really enjoyed it, so I was eager to read the other books in the series that I already had. (More of my thoughts on the series here.)

There’s another cozy cat mystery (practically a genre on its own) that I read, and while it was okay, it didn’t really charm me as The Cat Who books did.

As for PG Wodehouse, this is a book that carried over from last year. It wasn’t a DNF; I just hadn’t gotten around to finishing it yet. Trust me; there’s a difference. 😀 I love PG Wodehouse, but most of his books I read were borrowed from the library, so when I got back to reading ebooks again last year, it occurred to me that there might be free digital versions of his stories online, and there happily were. “A Damsel in Distress” actually wasn’t a reread for me though.

“The School of Essential Ingredients” is something I won from a lovely fellow bookstagrammer. It’s her favorite book and was eager to share it with other readers. Since I hear it’s a lot like “Como Agua Para Chocolate” and “Chocolat,” I was compelled to join her giveaway, and I actually won! It was an accidental DNF for me, which I can put down to perimenopause-related mental fog. I thought I’d finished it, but what actually happened was I had to read two other books because I was doing two reading groups at that time, so I put it aside to prioritize the other books, and then for some reason, I failed to get back to it. When I was moving my books to the two new bookcases I’d bought in November, I was surprised to see it still in my TBR pile. I finally remembered that I hadn’t finished it yet.

“Primitive Weapons” is one of the free ebooks I got for Stuff Your Kindle Day. I liked it. I usually don’t like supernatural elements in mysteries, but I didn’t mind this. Will I read the other books in the series? At this point, I’m so up to my neck with other books that I’m quite rabid to read that, even though I’m interested, I’m not really going to actively set forth to acquire them. If the books present themselves to me and they’re a really great deal, then, yes, I’m going to get them.

Anyway, that’s it for January. I hope I’m just as diligent this month; however, so far, not so good. I’m trying to speed read The Hobbit to be ready for tonight’s discussion, but I keep on watching BTS videos instead (while mending clothes, so I’m not being totally feckless). I miss them so much, okay? 😀

I’d love to hear about your January read/s. Are you familiar with any of these books? What are your thoughts?