It’s been a little while since I’ve been around here. Last year I had a plan for posting here once a month, with the results of my reading efforts, and then somewhat more frequently when NanoWriMo rolled around so that I could share my progress. This year, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to post a list of what books I’ve read—though of course I still plan to blog this year’s NaNoWriMo. But without a plan, I also know I was likely to abandon my blog through neglect.

So here I am, with the books I’ve read so far this year, and a plan that will get this blog through the next year.

1. ◊ The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future by Ryder Carroll
2. A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy 1)* by Deborah Harkness (reread)
3. Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy 2)* by Deborah Harkness (reread)
4. The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy 3)* by Deborah Harkness (reread)
5. » Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians 1) by Kevin Kwan
6. The Winter of the Witch (Winternight Trilogy 3) by Katherine Arden
7. The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air 2) by Holly Black
8. » The Monster Baru Cormorant (The Masquerade 2) by Seth Dickinson
9. » In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan
10. Affliction (Anita Blake 22) by Laurell K. Hamilton
11. Wild Things (Chicagoland Vampires 9) by Chloe Neill
12. ◊ The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well by Meik Wiking
13. The Ruin of Kings (A Chorus of Dragons 1) by Jenn Lyons
14. An Easy Death (Gunnie Rose 1) by Charlaine Harris
15. » The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Inheritance Trilogy 1) by N.K. Jemisin
16. » The Broken Kingdoms (Inheritance Trilogy 2) by N.K. Jemisin
17. » The Kingdom of Gods (Inheritance Trilogy 3) by N.K. Jemisin
18. Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell
19. The Near Witch by V.E. Schwab
20. ◊ Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (And Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles & Ted Orland

Last year, I gave myself permission to reread as many books as I wanted. It was my way of doing research; I was rereading books I loved with the express purpose of finding out why I loved them. Sometimes I wasn’t as successful, but sometimes I was. This year I have two goals in mind for my reading:

1) Read some nonfiction books. I tend to stay in my lane almost exclusively when reading, mostly because I love reading fantasy. But I know it’s good to expand one’s horizons, so with that in mind, I’m adding some carefully selected nonfiction books. And so far I’ve really enjoyed them! I’m not limiting the number of nonfiction books I read, but at this point I’m averaging about one every month. Considering most years I read zero nonfiction books total, even one every month feels good to me. Those are marked above with a ◊ (even though those long titles should be a dead giveaway).

2) Read some more diverse books. It’s not that I’ve intentionally read books by primarily cis, white authors, it’s that I wasn’t intentionally making the choice not to do so either. So this year, I intentionally went and found books that I already wanted to read that were written by people of color, people of non-Christian faiths, people of non-heterosexual orientations and books that feature those things as well and moved those books to the top of the TBR. Those are marked above with a ». (I already read primarily female authors, but that’s less a conscious choice than it is the fact that ladies happen to write the books I want to read.)

My Goodreads Reading Challenge for this year is set at 80 books. I got through 82 last year, so I think 80 is a goal I can meet and hopefully go beyond this year.

I’m also starting Camp NaNoWriMo today. My goal is to write 1,000 words per day, which is about three pages in the notebook I’m handwriting in, for a total of 30,000 words in April. I’m finally starting the rewrite of a novel that I’d previously written and finished. 30k words in one month maybe isn’t quite so intensive as November NaNoWriMo, but it’s still a hefty chunk of this next draft, which is the important thing. I spent the first quarter of the year brainstorming and plotting and even outlining, so I have a much better idea of what I’m writing this time.

And I’m excited!

I’ll be documenting the process here just like I will with November NaNoWriMo (regular NaNoWriMo? just NaNoWriMo?) and with July Camp NaNoWriMo as well. Which… yeah, should mean that I’ll be somewhat regularly here through the rest of this year. If you’re doing Camp NaNoWriMo this month, good luck!