My 2024 Wrap-Up!
As we wave goodbye to 2024 and look forward to a brand new year, today I’m looking back at the reading progress I made last year. In today’s 2024 wrap-up post, I’ll be taking you through some of my key reading stats from last year. As well, I cover how I progressed with the resolutions I set this time last year.
Overall, I had a great year. Although you’ll see in the resolutions section of this post that I didn’t technically meet most of the goals I set, I still enjoyed it nonetheless. When I set out my goals for the year, I had no idea that change was on the horizon. Just a month after I set those goals, I took a step out of my comfort zone. I asked a boy I was chatting to casually a couple of times a week out for a coffee. Now we live together.
Naturally, last year did not go as I’d expected it to in the best of ways. Whilst I’ve still had time to enjoy all the hobbies I have in good quantity, it was always going to be a less. Priorities shifted. Not only that, but I stepped back on both reading and blogging obligations for three months whilst I studied for a professional qualification.
So, now that I’ve made my excuses (I jest – I don’t think that’s the case really), let’s get into my 2024 wrap-up in earnest and talk numbers!
Reading Stats
Resolutions and Goals
Goodreads Challenge – Read 60 Books
At the beginning of 2024 in my resolutions post, I set myself the goal of reading 60 books. Whilst I have met this once and exceeded it twice before, in truth, 60 was supposed to be a maintenance goal. In 2023, I read 60 books after setting a challenge of 50. I felt it was a good amount to stick to. As I’ve explained earlier, I have exceeded this twice before, reading 62 books in 2017 and 72 in 2019. Certainly in 2019 I was feeling a little bit burnt out by the end; so I didn’t want to push myself that hard.
In the end, I completed 42 books in total in 2024 and carried forward two ongoing reads into 2025. Fool’s Errand by Robin Hobb and The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon will now count towards my 2025 total.
I did start and put down one book in the year, christening it a DNF at 26%. In the grand scheme of things, only putting down one book without finishing it in a year is pretty damn good! There is no point forcing myself to finish something I’m not enjoying. Coupled with the other statistics I shared this post above, it goes to show that I focused on finishing books I enjoyed in 2024.
Read >15 non-fiction
The second goal I get to talk about in this 2024 wrap-up post was my intention to pick up more than 15 non-fiction books by the end of the year. This is a reading goal I set myself in 2023 as well. Whilst picking up non-fiction that year in order to meet that goal was a very deliberate and intentional thing, it felt far more natural this year.
It’s fair to say I now choose to read non-fiction on a semi regular basis. As I started getting into the habit of reading more of the genre in 2023, I’ve been adding more books from it to my reading list and generally taking more of an interest in this subject.
Over the course of 2024, I finished 11 non-fiction books, with that one DNF I mentioned earlier also being a non-fiction. I’m not counting that one, but adding it here to show you that non-fiction has been prevalent on this reading list, and it’s been a very natural process. I’ve picked up these books around the year because I want to, not because I feel like I have to in order to meet this goal.
So, I didn’t beat my target of more than 15. However, that’s okay! My target in another context was for non-fiction to make up 25% of my reading list throughout the year (15/60). In the end, 11 out of 42 of my completed books were non-fiction, which is a percentage of 26%. Although I’ve not read as many as I wanted to do this year, the percentage of non-fiction books I’ve picked up is as intended. I’m reading the genre as often as I wanted to. It’s not a complete pass, but I’m not going to mark this as a total failure either…
Finish 10 series by end of year
When I shared my resolutions post with you last year, I confided that I had a vast number of ongoing series. I had at least 18 where I only had a maximum of 3 books left in order to finish them. That’s ignoring the likes of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld and Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings series where I have several books to go before I’m anywhere near the end.
I set myself a target of finishing 10 series; the definition of finish being either to get entirely up-to-date with a part-published series, or to finish it if the author has completed it.
I got pretty close to this goal in the end. As of this 2024 wrap-up post, I have to give myself 7 out of 10. I would have been one closer but for the fact that one of my ongoing series published a new book in November. I’ve had to dock myself a point for that…
The series I completed in 2024, for a quick recap, were:-
- The Illuminae Files (full completion)
- The Tattooist of Auschwitz (full completion)
- Skyward (full completion)
- The Celestial Kingdom (full completion)
- The Saxon Warrior (up-to-date)
- Empire of the Vampire (up-to-date)
- Eagle of Mercia (up-to-date)
Overall, a completion rate of 70% is still very good, and also in line with my Goodreads reading challenge. 42 books out of 60 is also 70%. So, it’s fair to say that I’ve been prioritising finishing series in equal proportion to my reading list. Again, I won’t call it a success or failure in this 2024 wrap-up.
Blog Goals – Make Social Media a Habit
This is the point in today’s wrap-up post where I have to be completely honest. I cannot blag this one. I did not make social media habit in 2024.
It is a goal I will be working on forever more because I am not drawn to social media. I recognise that it can be a useful tool, but I don’t love using it. Making content for it is a completely different ballpark to posting on the blog, and I would say it’s harder. At least, for me.
If you’ve looked at any of my socials in the last week or so, you can see some kind of renewed effort on trying to use and post on social media more often. As to how long it will last remains to be seen. I’m doing my best in these next few weeks to start making a habit of creating content ahead of time and doing so in a concentrated block. We’ll see if it sticks.
Summary
Even though I didn’t strictly meet any of the goals I set myself at the beginning of 2024, I’m still happy with the progress I’ve made with them.
It’s clear that I have continued to make the progress I wanted to throughout the year and that both finishing series and reading non-fiction have become a habit.
Thanks for taking the time to read my 2024 wrap-up! How did you fair against any resolutions you set yourself in 2024?
