Today is the Saturday before Christmas, and I’m thinking about my plans for the end of the year.

I have two weeks off work, and ten days left of 2024. I’d like to make these ten days count.

I have too many books on my ‘currently reading’ pile, but I’d still like to complete a few of them. I started re-reading Mockingjay last week, which was perhaps foolish considering how many other books I have waiting to be finished. But still, I’m enjoying it, and I’m actually putting the time in to reading it.

My main plan is to finish Mockingjay before Christmas – maybe even during this weekend. I don’t have any other priorities right now, so I should be able to get through a decent number of pages each day.

I’d also love to finish reading Keeper of the Lost Cities: Exile (which I started in January), as well as Caliban’s War (which I started in the Summer). But I’m not certain that I’ll be able to. They are both quite long and time-consuming. It would just be great to try.

I’m thinking that, once we reach the end of the year, I’m just going to put all my unfinished books back on the ‘unread’ shelves, and leave them until I’m ready to go back to them. I’m not going to rush to finish them straight away.

Maybe I just put too much pressure on myself with all these books that I started and didn’t finish. I’m just going to commit myself to the three that I mentioned above, and forget about the rest. It’s not worth the hassle to fuss over so many other books.

In theory I’d have to read about 80 or so pages a day just to complete these three books. It might be a nice challenge, but I’m not going to be too disheartened if I don’t manage to complete all three of them. I could still try to complete them in January I suppose.

Realistically what I’d like to do is to change up my reading routine. I’d love to be able to read for several hours a day, but I know that I’m just not ready for that yet. So instead I’d like to encourage myself to read for 15-30 minutes after each meal time every day for the next week (obviously no preassure on Christmas Day).

If I can build up a strong reading habit then I can get myself excited to read again, and gradually build up to reading more pages every day. That ought to help me to get through more books in the coming year.

I used to read about 30-40 pages a day, and back then I complained that I didn’t read enough because I knew people who could read hundreds of pages in a day. However, I now read barely even 20 pages each day, and I’m not getting through all that many books because of it.

I don’t think it matters how many pages anyone reads in a day. If you enjoy reading then you are a reader. But obviously I’m going to put higher standard in place for myself. Haha!

I just know that I own so many books, and there are so many stories that I’m excited to read, that it almost upsets me that I can’t get through them fast enough.

Do you have any reading plans for the end of the year? Let me know about them in the comments.

Until next time,
Love, Bobbi. Xx.