January 2024 Reading Recap

Another year full of reading goals I am trying very hard to keep, but yet here we are, one month down, and I’m like “did I read anything at all?”

Well, luckily for me, the spreadsheet system I built out last year persists, and while I still have to make some Excel Formula Magic, I did track everything I read in January 2024. It was….way less than the las tmonths of 2023 in which I was ERRATICALLY and ruthlessly reading picutre books and Kid Lid to prepare for Caldecott, Mock Newbery stuff, and trying to reach my goal of 1000 books for the year. In October, I would have said that I could do 1000 books in 2023 but never again, but knowing that I’m doing Caldecott this year…it’s entirely possible I’ll do 1000 books again in 2024. Oops.

Anyway, in January I quit my job, started a new job, and about drowned under the weight of work for one of my hobbies while also restarting an exercise routine, so while I had whole swaths of days where I didn’t read a book for me, I still read SOME THINGS and that’s fine. It’s kind of nice to be a little bit slower to start the year but still working on my goals.

In total, I started 39 books in January. I finished 36 of those books…but 2 of them I finished on February 1st. I’m still counting that in January though, because these are my rules. Of the three books I didn’t finish, one is the book of 31 Flannery O’Connor short stories I am working through still (more on that soon), one was a middle grade novel I DNF’d after not being able to get into, and one was a book for my book club I read most of, and I’m going to finish on audio.

Now, Flannery. I am about halfway through this collection, which is behind my goal, which was to read 31 stories in the 31 days of January but I kind of forgot how uh…tough Flannery O’Connor’s stories are. So many of them use racial slurs (you know which one) for just…no reason. They are tough to read back to back, and so I’m not doing that to catch up. I’ll finish in February…and gladly drop this collection off in a Little Free Library somewhere. A Good Man is Hard to Find is good, but there’s probably a reason it is her best known short story….

I read VERY few picture books this month, largely because I was just distracted and not at the public library, and too busy at work to enjoy the books around me. I did count the 3 books I read in their entirety (multiple times) with my classes (2 easy readers, 1 picture book) but I did not count She Persisted: Florence Griffith Joyner, which my 3rd-5th grade classes are reading bits of to think about the information in biographies and how topic-specific it can be. My 3rd-5th graders also started Eb & Flow this month, and I don’t know if I’ll count it or not…kind of depends on how far we get. I’ve already read it, and reviewed it, so I know how it shakes out!

I made 2 goals related to reading, other than the O’Connor collection, that I kept this month! I have 5 books I was so excited to buy/get and then never read, and I want to read one a month–in January, I read I’m The Girl by Courtney Summers. It was good—kept me wanting to read the next page. I also am reading/notating one PD book a month. In January, I read Is the Cat in the Hat Black? which was an interesting rumination on race in children’s literature, and while it was still very eye-opening, it was also interesting to think about how far kid lit has come just in the 6 or so years since the book was written.

Some other highlights from my January reading:

• I read 4 Phoebe and Her Unicorn books so I can be *in the know* with the cool kids now. They’re so funny…but aren’t there like almost 20 now? haha
• I listened to 7 audiobooks! 6 of them KidLit, 1 of them an adult book by a podcaster I love.
• I had jury duty for ONE DAY. Not even a WHOLE DAY and I read so many books. I read 1 younger graphic novel, 1 kids chapter book, 1 YA graphic novel, the new BSC graphic novel, and a YA novel. Yes, I went home on my lunch break to get more books, lol.
• Finally read Our Last Days in Barcelona by Chanel Cleeton. She’s an author I forget about, but her books are so well-paced and engaging, and she’s like a breezier version of Ruta Septys: I always learn so much about a particular time period in history through her characters.
• In an attempt to read the books I already own, I read 4 print ARCs of books that have already been published, lol.

February ahead! I have started out the month strong, I’ve got my plans made for which books I’ll read to accomplish some goals–a PD book on picture books and the 4th American Royals book, which should be a quick read! The new Amulet book came in at the library for me, and I’m like 14th in line for the new Sarah J Maas book…so I better get to reading quick. I have 4 Booklist reviews due over the next month, and since I can’t review picture books anymore, I’m reviewing middle grade and YA fiction and nonfiction and it’s a big change of pace. 

Some of the other books I’m looking forward to in February include the finale in the Merci Suarez trilogy, Elf Dog and Owl Head which was a Newbery Honor winner, and Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad, which is my book club’s pick for February.