I really only enjoy a certain kind of memoir: it has to be by a person who was in some kind of extraordinary situation and the book has to focus mostly on that particular situation, not their life as a whole. And then, of course, it should be beautifully written, thoughtful, reflective, etc.

Last year, my top favorite book was a memoir: In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, about her experience in an abusive relationship. I've also loved When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanathi, a neurosurgeon who was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

When I've tried to read memoirs that fall outside this formula, no matter how interesting the person's life seems or how much I might like them as a celebrity figure, I end up feeling bored or like the story is too meandering.

>!Infanticide!< is a very taboo topic and the whole book is steeped in the psychological implications of it. I think many people find that concept to be so distressing that they have a hard time engaging with a whole novel about it.

Before I tried them, I was a bit skeptical of reading challenges, because why wouldn't I just read whatever I want? But I've found that I have a lot of fun with them and I really enjoy being part of the community on Goodreads and Reddit.

I have a couple of plans for nonfiction! I'm mostly a fiction reader, but I've found that a few nonfiction books end up being my favorite reads every year, so it's worth it to me to prioritize it a bit. I'm most interested in memoirs (In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado was my favorite book this year) and science nonfiction, especially about climate change, ecology, or biology (one of my other favorites of this year was Under a White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert). This year I might try Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane, Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee, and The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey, but I'm open to seeing what comes my way!

Working on DNFing is such a good one. Slogging my way through books I’m not enjoying really slows me down and it’s almost always not worth it. For the books that are worth it, I just need to trust that I’ll pick them back up when the time is right!

I’ll be doing two challenges that I do every year: the Around the Year challenge on Goodreads and the BINGO challenge on r/Fantasy. The ATY challenge is 52 books and the BINGO is 25, but I let them overlap, usually completely.

My numerical goal is 52, I guess, since I want to complete all the challenge prompts. This isn’t really a challenge, though, I consistently read that many, but I don’t feel the need to have a “stretch” goal here.

I’ve made myself a list of 10 books I want to prioritize and 6 or 7 authors who I read this past year and would like to read more from.

I’d like to prioritize a few things: reading a good number of nonfiction (6-10), reading books in translation, reading fantasy, continuing with authors I’ve read before, reading several books by the same author, and reading books set in countries I haven’t read about yet.

The books were:

The Comet Seekers by Helen Sedgwick — had never heard of this and would have never picked it up because of the low Goodreads rating, but I loved it, 5 stars.

Greenwood by Michael Christie — had never heard of this, it hit a bunch of the things I said I like in books (non-chronological structure, sci fi/historical fiction genre mix, ensemble cast, focus on natural history/ecology), but I didn't love it because of the pacing, 3 stars

The History of Bees by Maja Lunde — had never heard of this, loved it, 5 stars

Ship Fever: Stories by Andrea Barrett — had never heard of this, loved it, 5 stars

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell — already had this one my TBR and seeing the recommendation bumped it up in line, I loved it, 5 stars

The Archive of Alternate Endings by Lindsey Drager — had never heard of this, hit a bunch of things I like (folklore, sibling relationships, many timelines) but it was a bit too experimental for me, 3 stars.

>my problem is splitting the good books with themes I like from the bad books with themes I like!

I get that! So far, I've had good luck in the sense that I haven't tried any books that I thought were bad or objectively poorly written, just things that weren't perfectly to my taste. In the preferences survey, you get to answer some questions about what you think makes a good book in terms of writing style and characters and plot, so I think that helps. It'll be interesting to me as I keep reading recommendations to see if I start encountering books that I think are just bad or whether the algorithm really can tell what "good for me" means!

*I realized this might be important to know — I tend to rate about 10 books a year 5 stars, so this was an impressive showing in my opinion. I don't give out 5 star ratings willy nilly.

I don’t find the mood tags very useful either, but their recommendation algorithm is amazing. I read 6 books it recommended me last year and I absolutely loved most of them and the other couple I rated 3ish stars but could still tell why they would be recommended to me. I think it’s really useful if you know what kinds of themes you like to read about - like, I told it that I like science fiction books about making first contact with aliens and historical fiction about natural scientists and literary fiction about sibling relationships and it’s recommended me all kinds of things that fit those categories or the overlaps between them.

I have a reading goal, because for the past several years I've done reading challenges where there are 52 prompts. But it's not what I use to motivate myself to read - it's not a "stretch" goal, it's under the number of books I read in a typical year.

I find that it's more useful for me to change my reading habits if I want to read more, rather than setting goals. For example, reading at certain parts of the day (before bed, while eating breakfast, etc.), putting the Kindle app on my phone so I can read a few pages while waiting for a meeting to start rather than scrolling through social media, always having a plan for what I'm excited to read next after I finish the book I'm currently reading, allowing myself to put aside books that I'm not enjoying, reading two different books at once so I always have something I'm in the mood for (I do this especially for nonfiction and short story collections - they take longer for me to read, so I like to have a faster paced thing to read at the same time). One big thing I've noticed is that for me, the length of a book is not what slows me down, it's more about the pacing and my interest. I can fly through a 600 page book if I love it and a 300 page book can take me weeks if I don't like it much.

I used to have goals for certain types of books, like "I want to read 10 nonfiction books this year" or "I want to read 5 books in translation this year" but I've kind of stopped doing that. I do keep track of those numbers, but again, I've found that it works better to change my habits: instead of making goals, I follow people who recommend the kind of books I'd like to read more, so I get excited about them and add them to my TBR. Then I read more of that kind of book naturally.