And we must officially say our final goodbye to 2022! Onwards and upwards to 2023! A very different year 2023 will be. Last year was more about picking what I wanted when I wanted but now I have a nearly 200-book physical TBR and it’s time to start whittling it down. This year will be focused more on tackling the number of books that I own!

How many books do I plan to read in 2023?

(Goodreads Reading Challenge)

So after the momentous year, I had last year of reading 134 books, I feel more confident about raising my goal! In 2023, I plan on reading 100 books. Again, I do have a lot of manga lined up and I have another interesting challenge coming up that will help me reach this goal!

2023 Sequels

A challenge I need to focus on a lot more this year. Last year, I missed out on reaching my desired goal so I am hoping to do better this year. Every year I set myself the same goal. I must read one book in all the series I currently have ongoing. That being said I have a lot of sequels lined up this year so it will a lot harder to complete this challenge. So I have to make some slight amendments to this challenge. My plan is to read 12 books out of my list of 24. Below are all the sequels I have lined up, I wonder which ones I will choose.

1. Heavenly Tyrant – Xiran Jay Zhao (Iron Widow #2)
2. The Bullet That Missed – Richard Osman (The Thursday Murder Club #3)
3. Haikyu!! Vol.4 – Haruichi Furudate (Haikyu! #4)
4. The Promised Neverland Vol.7 – Kaiu Shirai (The Promised Neverland #7)
5. Moriarty the Patriot Vol.2 – Ryusuke Takeuchi (Moriarty the Patriot #2)
6. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End: Vol.5 – Tsukasa Abe (Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End #5)
7. Death on Gokuman Island – Seishi Yokomizo (Detective Kosuke Kindaichi #4)
8. Murder in Mesopotamia – Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #13)
9. The Bride Test – Helen Hoang (The Kiss Quotient #2)
10. The Burning God – R.F. Kuang (The Poppy War #3)
11. HMRC: The Shadow Cabinet – Juno Dawson (Her Majesty’s Royal Coven #2)
12. Foxglove – Adalyn Grace (Belladonna #2)
13. Sailor Moon Vol.2 – Naoko Takeuchi (Sailor Moon #2)
14. Blue Exorcist Vol.2 – Kazue Kubo (Blue Exorcist #2)
15. A Torch Against the Night – Sabaa Tahir (An Ember in the Ashes #2)
16. The Fires of Heaven – Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time #5)
17. We Free the Stars – Hafsah Faizal (Sands of Arawiya #2)
18. The Republic of Thieves – Scott Lynch (Gentleman Bastard #3)
19. Bloodmarked – Tracy Deonn (Legendborn Cycle #2)
20. TLOZ: Twilight Princess Vol.2 – Akira Himekawa (Twilight Princess #2)
21. All of Our Demise – Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman (All of Our Villains #3)
22. The Girl from the Other Side Vol. 2 – Nagabe (The Girl From the Other Side #2)
23. ATLA: The Promise Part 2 – Gene Luen Yang (The Promise #2)
24. The Atlas Paradox – Olivia Blake (The Atlas #2)

Physical TBR

Continuing on with the challenges I always do, we then have the infamous Physical TBR challenge. I did awfully last year. Genuinely awful! Having only read 16 out of my proposed 30. I want to do better this year but I also understand that I have way too many books on my Physical TBR to possibly finish it in one whole year! My plan is to read 30 books from my Physical TBR.

I decided to stick with last year’s goal. Since I didn’t complete it last year I would like to do that first before I move on to harder challenges. 30 books only make up 17% of what I own but I hope to do better than that. 30 is just a good baseline.

TOR.com Challenge

So, this year I realised that Tor.com has free-to-read short stories/novelettes available to read at any time. I read a couple this year and loved what I saw. I literally went into a deep dive and have a spreadsheet full of short stories that I want to try out. After seeing that and realising I wouldn’t be going ahead with audiobooks in 2023 I decided to set myself a challenge of reading 12 stories from TOR.com. This will definitely help me reach my goal of 100 books this year.

IndiaReadsALot Prompt Challenge

So a BRAND NEW challenge for 2023. After seeing how badly I failed to get through my Physical TBR in 2022 I decided to set a challenge that would specifically help me tackle that, also read some books I have neglected since buying them as well as branch out into different genres. One thing I have to make sure of is that I have to make all these book-owned books and not books I bought or received in 2023. The plan is to read 3 books from each of the 12 prompts!

• January – Manga Month

  I decided to focus on manga at the very beginning of the year as I always feel that people cram in manga and graphic novels in the last month of the year to meet their goals. Well, I want to get loads of books out of the way at the beginning of the year so I don’t have to cram at the end.

  Possible choices could be:

  • Snow White with the Red Hair Vol.1- Sorata Akiduki
  • Drifting Dragons Vol.1 – Taku Kuwabara
  • Children of the Whales Vol.1 – Abi Umeda
• February – Romance Month

  This month is pretty self-explanatory. February to me has always been the month of love and I wanted to honour that with this prompt. This month I must read books where romance is a key part of the narrative. It doesn’t have to be specifically a romance book but romance has to be prominent.

  Possible choices could be:

  • Once Upon a Broken Heart – Stephanie Garber
  • These Violent Delights – Chloe Gong
  • A Taste of Gold and Iron – Alexandra Rowland
• March – Murder Mystery Month

  I had originally planned on this prompt being later in the year but ultimately decided this was the best place for this prompt. For this month I must read murder mysteries, they can be any other genre or setting. Contemporary, fantasy, historical fiction anything. They just have to have a murder mystery at the centre of the plot.

  Possible choices could be:

  • The Sanatorium – Sarah Pearse
  • The Hunting Party – Lucy Foley
  • Murder Before Evensong – Richard Coles
• April – Historical Month

  Now, this is really interesting as I didn’t realise how many books I read that are set in historical settings until I did my yearly wrap-up. I want to champion that by choosing this prompt. For this month, I must read 3 books set in a historical setting. Doesn’t matter about the rest of the genre, the setting just has to be historical.

  Possible choices could be:

  • A Million to One – Adiba Jaigirdar
  • The Ashes of London – Andrew Taylor
  • The Dance Tree – Kiran Millwood Hargrave
• May – Cosy Fantasy Month

  Now, this genre is quite hard to differentiate from a prompt I have a bit later but this prompt is for fantasy books that have lower stakes and are considered cosy compared to the higher stake, epic fantasies I also have lined up. It may be that I end up reading a book I originally thought was cosy but ended up being more intense but I will tackle that when I get there.

  Possible choices could be:

  • Legends and Lattes – Travis Baldree
  • The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern
  • Lonely Castle in the Mirror – Mizuki Tsujimura
• June – Middle Grade Month

  Since I am specifically a Children’s Bookseller I wanted to dedicate a month to the middle-grade age range. Not only to expand my knowledge but also because middle-grade fiction is so underrated!!

  Possible choices could be:

  • The Lost Girl King – Catherine Doyle
  • Amari and the Night Brothers – BB Alston
  • Murder Most Unladylike – Robin Stevens
• July – Epic Fantasy Month

  On the flip side, for this month I will jump into some intense, action-packed, jaw-dropping fantasy! This will be the hardest month as most of the books I have are absolute tomes!! I think July will just consist of 3 books.

  Possible choices could be:

  • The Way of Kings – Brandon Sanderson
  • The First Binding – R.R. Virdi
  • The Fires of Heaven – Robert Jordan
• August – India’s Picks

  Since August is my birthday month I thought I would give myself a “Get Out of Jail” free month where I just pick books that I desperately want to read.

• September – Academia Month

  September always reminds me of going back to school and fresh starts. So, for this month I decided to read both light and dark academia!

  Possible choices could be:

  • How We Fall Apart – Katie Zhao
  • Promise Boys – Nick Brooks
  • The School for Good and Evil – Soman Chainani
• October – Spooky Month

  October will always and forever be the month of Halloween. That means this is the month to read those spooky books that have been haunting my shelves! This month I plan on reading 3 spooky/horror books.

  Possible choices could be:

  • The Hacienda – Isabel Canas
  • The Sacrifice – Rin Chupeco
  • The Ghost Woods – C.J. Cooke
• November – Non-Fiction Month

  So November is officially the dedicated month of non-fiction so it seems only fitting to champion non-fiction during this month.

  Possible choices could be:

  • The Life of Crime – Martin Edwards
  • The Story of Art Without Men – Katy Hessell
  • Femina – Janina Ramirez
• December – Christmas Month

  I read a lot of Christmas fiction last year and I wanted to do the same again. That being said, as of now, I only have one book lined up for Dec 2023.

  • Mystery in White – J. Jefferson Farjeon