i know i said in my 2021 goals post [in january!] that my biggest goal for this year is to find a job in a new city, and that is definitely still the case, but i do also have some reading goals that i’d like to have in writing so that i can look back on them at the end of the year.

read at least 40 books. this is fewer than i read last year but still higher than any other year prior to 2020. i am already halfway there so am well ahead of where i need to be, but i also figure that as i get deeper into job interviews and figuring out a move my time for reading will be cut significantly. i might increase this but am going to hold off for the time being.

make sure i am reading books set outside of the united states. i have been good at diversifying the authors i’m reading and last year over half the books i read were by bipoc authors, but the majority were still set in the united states. my ideal number here would be somewhere in the 10-15 range i think, but we will see how this plays out.

read at least 3 graphic novels. last year i read john lewis’ march trilogy and mira jacobs’ good talk [still one of the best books i’ve ever read] and remembered how much i enjoy reading graphic novels. i mentioned this on the first bank holiday book club call of the year, and the group had some great suggestions for me to look into. all the ones i’ve read thus far have been nonfiction, so i’m interested to see how i like reading fiction in this format.

read 7-10 books by lgbtq+ authors and / or books centering lgbtq+ characters. i started logging this in the latter half of 2020, and it is something i want to be more intentional about going forward.

re-read shantaram. i mentioned this as a goal a few years ago and said that 2021 should be the year i do it, as it is 15 years from when i first read it in 2006. when i read it all those years ago, i was fresh off my first 6-month stint living in bangalore and got caught up in the passages about discovering different facets of life in india. i was enthralled at the descriptions of the smell of bombay [still one i can conjure without a second thought] and what it’s like to travel across the country by train, because roberts found words that i didn’t have to share what those experiences are like. it’s been nearly 5 years since i last lived in india and i wonder how much my relationship with the book will have changed, just as my relationship with india changed over those 11 years. i still have my old battered copy, but i actually think i’ll either buy a new one or borrow a digital copy from the library so that i can read it with fresh eyes. between myself and my brother, half of that copy is underlined and highlighted and has exclamation points in the margins; it’s a testament to how much of an impact this book can have. stay tuned for this one, because i’m pretty excited about it.

do you have any reading goals for this year?

xx