Reading challenge mid-year checkup

Last year at this time (and the year before that too), I did a mid-year check-in on the status of my Goodreads Reading Challenge and other reading goals -- and since the year is once again halfway over (ummm.... WTF?!)  I thought it was timely to do it again.  :)  

In my 2022 Reading Year in Review post last December, I wrote: 

• ...I reached my Goodreads Reading Challenge Goal of 45 books by mid-November, and ended the year with 50 books read -- but I didn't equal my 2021/best-recorded total of 59 books (when my goal was 36).  For 2023, I've decided to maintain my goal of 45 books ( = 3.75 books per month on average), which seems realistic for me right now. 
• I've read more than 45 books in three of the past four years (2019, 2021 and 2022, and almost 45 -- 43 -- in 2020 -- so that seems very do-able.  But I'm hoping I'll be able to improve on my 2022 total, too!  
• While I'm grateful for my book groups and the boost they give to my reading totals, and while I intend to keep up with them in 2023, I'm hoping to be able to read more of my own choices this coming year too.  :)   

Here we are at the midpoint of 2023 -- which would suggest I should have read 22-24 books by now to keep up the pace of 3-4 books per month towards 45 by the end of the year. I crossed the 24-book threshold (50%) in mid-June, when I finished Louise Penny's "A Rule Against Murder" (reviewed here). I am currently at 25 books finished = 56% of my 2023 goal (3 ahead of schedule to meet my goal). I read 6 books in January, 4 in February, 3 in March, 4 in April, 5 in May and 3 in June.

At this time last year (end of June), I had reached 29 books (64% of my goal). (I'd read 5 books in January 2022, 6 in February, 5 in March, 6 in April, 3 in May and 4 in June.) So I'm 4 books behind versus where I was last year, in terms of number of books read (and 9 books behind 2021, when I had completed 34 books by the end of June) -- but I'm still on pace to reach or exceed my goal of 45 books before the end of the year.  

Whether I'll be able to improve on 2022's total by year end remains to be seen...! Last year, I had eye surgery in late July, which slowed my reading pace down a bit, for a while. I don't have anything like that planned this year ("PLANNED" being the operative word...!);  however, my BIL is undergoing some major surgery shortly -- so hospital visits and doing things to support the family may (will likely? already has??) limit my reading time. 

I'm still doing a lot of book club reads & re-reads -- and I recently took on the role of co-hosting the monthly book club on the Lighthouse Women (formerly Gateway Women) online community. I would have been reading the books there anyway -- but now I'm actively hunting out & reading/screening books that might be a good fit for the group too.  And I've also taken on *another* unofficial goal of reading one Louise Penny Three Pines/Inspector Gamache novel a month (loosely following the Notes From Three Pines Substack newsletter Readalong).  

So while I HAVE managed to fit in some books of my own choosing, they've continued to take a back seat -- perhaps a little more than I'd like. But I missed the book club when the hosts stepped down and it subsequently went on hiatus, and sometimes if you want something done, you have to be willing to do it yourself...!  (And reading the Penny books was certainly my choice;  they've been on my TBR list for quite a while now...)  

AND (as I wrote on my latest "Right now" post)... not that I need yet ANOTHER book club/readalong to follow... but I recently learned about one on Substack for "Middlemarch" by George Eliot. This is a book that I read (and enjoyed) in university (it was my favourite English prof's all-time favourite book) -- but that was.... ummm... a LONG time ago, lol.  I've often though of giving it a re-read. As I said, I need another reading obligation like a hole in the head, but this does seem like a perfect opportunity... they're covering chapters 6 & 7 tomorrow (July 2nd) -- so it would be (relatively) easy to catch up at this point. (Well, easier than if, say, they were already on chapter 42, right?)  Hmmm....  

I also recently ventured into the world of ARCs (advance reader copies) on NetGalley by reading and reviewing Ashley Audrain's new book, "The Whispers" (reviewed here). It was a good read and an interesting experience -- but I didn't realize that most of these books come with an "archive date."  I have enough book-related deadlines/obligations in my reading life at the moment as it is -- reading should be fun, not work! -- so I probably won't be requesting more ARCs regularly, unless something pops up that I find really interesting and want to read immediately.  

Needless to say, there's still lots on my "priority TBR list" (which has expanded considerably since it began...!) that I haven't read yet! (But it's still fun trying, right?)  

Did you set any reading goals for 2023?  How are you doing with them?