I have recently found myself looking at my bookshelves and thinking longingly to myself, “I wish I could read some of those books again.” Which is silly. Of course I can read those books again! What’s stopping me??

The only thing that’s stopping me is myself, by telling myself I need to read “new” books.

So I’ve decided that 2018 is going to be my Year of Rereads. I won’t actively avoid new books—and there are some books coming out in 2018 that I’m looking forward to reading, so I will certainly pick those up as they’re released—but I am going to actively go through my favorite books and read as many of them again as I can.

There are two reasons for this exercise. 1) I like those books! I like those stories, and I want to enjoy them again. 2) I want to pay attention to the craft that went into them. I don’t always notice the craft of writing when I’m reading something for the first time, and as I’m beginning to write more myself, I’m feeling the need to continue my education, even if it’s solo this time around.

So I have a list. A slightly obsessively organized list. The list is 92 books long: that’s 23 different authors, and only 15 books that have yet to be published. (And 8 books I haven’t read yet but are part of a series, so I might as well read them too.) That’s my reading list for 2018. Since I read faster when I’ve read something before than I do when I’m reading it for the first time, I think a slightly higher number of books for the year is manageable. Things keep getting added as I remember more and more books that I love that I want to read again, so the final number might be higher. I find myself hoping it will be. I’m not sure how much more I’ll be able to fit into the year—like any of the other books that are still on my To Be Read list—but we’ll see I suppose.

(I expect that this will mean that 2018 will have a limited number of book reviews here, but I do have a bunch that I need to catch up on, so I might try to squeeze those in. Somehow. Somewhere.)

So that’s my 2018 Reading Challenge. What are your reading plans for the new year?