2022 bookish challenges wrap-up

It’s that time of year again to start wrapping up things and planning for next year. This is the first of many posts, and I couldn’t be more excited! In 2022, I had two plus one reading challenges (one I came up with late in the year): a Rory Gilmore challenge, Getting serious with series and most recently, Dickens vs Tolstoy (which is not just a yearly thing but I wanted to talk about it). This year I finally realised that I really don’t do well with long-term commitments, but more on that later.

Reading some of Rory Gilmore’s favourite books

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf ❌ ➽ I definitely still want to read this someday
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen ❌ ➽ I haven’t reread it this year
The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker ❌ ➽ this is hard to come by, and I kind of lost interest in it
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy ❌ ➽ I haven’t reread it this year, hopefully, next year it will happen
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath ❌ ➽ I still don’t know if I actually want to read this
Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg ❌ ➽ I realised I don’t want to waste my time on something I know I won’t enjoy
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens ❌ ➽ again, I read this one so many years ago, but I didn’t reread it in 2022, I plan on doing it next year
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke ✅ ➽ I really liked this one

Conclusion: 1/8 😂

Getting serious with series in 2022

Series I need to finish/continue

The Trials of Apollo by Rick Riordan (1 book left) ❌ ➽ I want to reread the entire PJO universe books before I finish this series
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan (1) ✅ ➽ the finale was a delightful surprise
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (1) ❌ ➽ I’m hoping to continue in January or February
Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery (6) ✅ ❌ ➽ I read one, but five are still left
Wayward Children by Seanan McGuire (3) ❌ ➽ this didn’t happen at all this year
Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend (1) ❌ ➽ fingers crossed I will read this in 2023
Small Spaces by Katherine Arden (2) ❌ ➽ I would have read this if only it was available in my library
Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (6) ✅ ❌ ➽ I read two, so four are left
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (2) ✅ ❌ ➽ I read one, but they published one in English in the second half of the year

Series I want to start

The Cemetery or Forgotten Books by Carlos Ruiz Zafón ❌ ➽ I don’t think I’ll read it as I’m not really interested
These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling ❌ ➽ again, I’m not interested anymore
The Carls by Hank Green ✅ ➽ I loved this duology, which was a big surprise
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson ✅ ❌ ➽ I read two out of three
Fence by Sarah Rees Branner ❌ ➽ I lost interest in this one
Anna K by Jenny Lee ❌ ➽ and in this one as well

Conclusion: 2 finished series, 4 half-wins (out of 15 in total 💀)

Dickens vs Tolstoy

Childhood, Boyhood, Youth by Leo Tolstoy ✅
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens ❌
War and Peace ❌

This one is unique as it spans over a couple of years. But upon only reading one out of the three “assigned” for August-December, I realised that I didn’t want to make a challenge out of this. I don’t want to assign these books every month, instead, I want to read them whenever I feel like it. I still will go according to chronology, but if I don’t feel like reading a Dickens or Tolstoy book for half a year, then so be it.

All in all, I finally realised that yearly challenges are not for me. At all. I am always excited about them when I come up with their ideas, but it really quickly fades, and I oftentimes just forget about which books I “should” read. So, from now on, I won’t make these lists, I know myself better now. Monthly read-a-thons or tbrs are much more my jam. I kinda knew this last year, too, but still, I hoped I could follow up on my promises.

Do you like yearly challenges? Are you able to actually succeed? If yes, what are your secrets? 😂 Are you looking forward to end-of-the-year posts like this?