Welcome to my booktube channel, Voyage of a Time Wanderer! This tag is the perfect way to finish reflecting on my 2023 reading year and looking ahead to the books and goals that I have for 2024.
This tag was originally created by @Bookables in 2018:
==== Timestamps and Questions ===
00:00 Intro
00:57 How many books are you planning to read in 2024?
02:21 Name 5 books that you didn’t get to this year but want to make a priority in 2024.
07:07 What genre do you want to read more of?
08:13 Name 3 non book related goals for 2024.
10:28 What’s a book you’ve had forever that you still need to read?
12:43 One word that you’re hoping 2024 will be:
13:31 Tag some friends/Outro
==== Books Discussed (affiliate links)====
“The Mirror and the Light” by Hilary Mantel
https://bookshop.org/a/98167/9781250182494
“Wolf Hall” by Hilary Mantel
https://bookshop.org/a/98167/9781250806710
“Bring up the Bodies” by Hilary Mantel
https://bookshop.org/a/98167/9781250806727
“The Lacuna” by Barbara Kingsolver
https://bookshop.org/a/98167/9780060852580
“Return to Valetto” by Dominic Smith
https://bookshop.org/a/98167/9780374607685
“The Last Painting of Sara de Vos” by Dominic Smith
https://bookshop.org/a/98167/9781250118325
“King Lear” by William Shakespeare
https://bookshop.org/a/98167/9781501118111
“The Year of Lear” by James Shapiro
https://bookshop.org/a/98167/9781416541653
“The Sun Walks Down” by Fiona McFarlane
https://bookshop.org/a/98167/9780374606237
“A Town Like Alice” by Nevil Shute
https://bookshop.org/a/98167/9780307474001
“Small Island” by Andrea Levy
https://bookshop.org/a/98167/9780312429522
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Hello and welcome back to Voyage of a Time Wanderer today I’m here to do the New Year’s book tag this tag was originally created by the channel bookables way back in 2018 and because of the nature of the tag it’s one that just keeps popping up year
After year so I saw some channels that I follow doing this tag in the last few days and I thought I would hop on board and have this be uh my last kind of wrapping up 2023 looking forward to 2024 video I might have a couple more shorts
That highlight some favorites from 2023 but I believe this is going to be the last uh fulllength video uh about my 2023 reading and 2024 reading goals this is a fairly short tag there’s only seven or eight questions so I think it’s going to be a pretty quick video but uh I
Thought some of the questions were kind of interesting to discuss so the first question is how many books are are you hoping to read in 2024 so I have set my Goodreads goal at 50 books which is kind of my standard reading goal for the year
In the last I don’t know four or five years now I’ve had it set at 50 and I don’t plan on ever increasing that uh kind of secretly in my heart of hearts I hope that I’m able to cross 100 again I read 120 books in 2023 and 117 in
2022 and I think I was over just over 100 in 2021 1 and 2020 as well uh so I kind of hope that I’m in the 100 range but I don’t like setting my goal above 50 because I don’t want to be very stressed about reaching or not reaching
That goal and I also want to give myself an opportunity to pick up longer books especially longer Classics and not kind of feel like I’m wasting reading Time by dedicating time to these really long books so for example when I pick up uh some books off of my 2024 Classics TV
Are like crime and punishment or the Lord of the Rings trilogy those books are so long that they’re like the equivalent of four or five books in one and so I don’t want to feel like I shouldn’t pick up these longer Classics because I should read Five Short books
Instead just to reach some arbitrary limit so that’s why I end up setting my goal at 50 books every year question number two is list five books that you didn’t get to in 2023 that you want to make a priority in 2024 the first book on this list is the
Mirror and the light by Hillary mantel this is the third book in The Wolf Hall Trilogy about Thomas Cromwell and tutor era England I read the first two books so Wolf Hall and bring up the bodies in May June 2022 so it’s been like a year
And a half uh that I’ve had the mirror and the light kind of hanging over me I started it right away after uh finishing bring up the bodies I only got like I want to say less than 10% of the way through it maybe like 8% uh and it was
Just kind of I was bogged down in that era and that writing style and I just needed a break and then I haven’t gone back and picked it back up uh I have it on hold on Libby and I keep getting like the notification on my phone that my
Hold is ready and I keep delaying s days and being like oh yeah for sure I’ll be ready to read it in seven days and I’ve been doing that for like a year and a half now and I really would like to wrap up the trilogy and kind of get the full
Character Arc that mantel was building for Thomas Cromwell the next book is the Lacuna by Barbara King salvert this is the last book that I have on my five-star historical fiction prediction list before I can go back and do a reaction video and set a new list of
Five star predictions and so I really want to prioritize reading this early this year uh hopefully sometime in January or February so that I can uh go back and finish the loop on that prediction video book number three is return to vetto by Dominic Smith Dominic Smith wrote the last painting of Sarah
DeVos which is one of my favorite fiction titles from 2022 and this is a new release that came out in the fall of 2023 and when I found out that he had a new book coming out I was super excited and then I haven’t had a chance to read
It yet because I loved the last painting of Sarah DeVos so much I have quite high hopes for return to vetto it has a lot of elements in the synopsis that make me think I’m really going to like it it’s set in Italy I believe in the modern
Time but with a lot of historical Flash backs I’ve seen some places label it as historical fiction and some not so I’m not entirely sure about kind of where where exactly in time we’re set I think it’s telling the story of a few different generations of a family and
There’s some uh L hidden family secrets coming to light as well as a dual time narrative and there’s also a story line that features a resistance fighter in Italy during the second world war so I think there’s a lot of promise for this book and like I said I really loved his
Writing in the last painting of Sarah DeVos so I am hopeful that this is going to be a book I really love and since it was a new release I didn’t get to in 2023 I’m hoping to pick it up in 2024 going in the extreme opposite direction
From a 2023 release I have King Leer by William Shakespeare uh this is one that I really debated putting on my 2024 Classics TBR but I ultimately didn’t but I still really want to get to it in 2024 uh I like to try to read at least one Shakespeare every year eventually I
Would love to have read all of his plays but I’m not in like a huge rush to do that but King Le is the next one up on my docket and that is partially because I have this other book The Year of Lear uh Shakespeare in 1606 by James sharpio
And this book talks about what was happening in London in the year 16006 which is when Shakespeare wrote King leer uh and he also wrote MC Beth and Anthony and Cleopatra in the same year and so it says that uh this book kind of examines how some of the political and
Cultural issues of the time were transformed into the plays that he was writing including King leer so I think this is going to be a really fun uh Duo to pick up together I’m hoping to read them in April uh which I always try to read my Shakespeare in April to
Celebrate his birthday and then lastly the fifth book that I have on this list of titles that I transferred from my 2023 to 2024 reading is the sun walks down by Fiona McFarland this is a historical fiction novel set in Australia and Katie from books and
Things had a lot of really really good things to say about it after she finished reading it uh which is what put it on my radar I believe it was in the running for a historical fiction Prize last year there is a young boy who goes
Missing during a dust storm and kind of the whole town rallies around trying to find him and we’re learning about the unfolding of this event through a variety of perspectives of different people living in this small town after reading a town like Alice by Neville
Shot I have wanted to pick up some more Australian historical fiction and I feel like this book especially with the cover imagery just seems like a perfect summertime read question number three is what genre do you want to read more of in 2024 and I think I’ve mentioned this in
A couple of videos that I’m really hoping to read more non-fiction in 2024 uh I’m excited about some of the non-fiction titles that I have on my radar to pick up this year and so I’m really hopeful that it’s going to be a great non-fiction year the another genre
That I want to kind of dabble more in is science fiction I feel like I’m just starting to get a grip on the niche of Science Fiction that I enjoy and that’s really exciting to me to have kind of a whole new genre that uh I had never
Previously read that I am starting to enjoy and have a chance to explore so that is definitely another genre that I’m hoping to read more of in 2024 obviously I know I’m still going to be reading tons of like historical fiction and Classics I don’t feel feel like I
Need to prioritize reading more of those because that’s already such a staple part of my reading diet but science fiction is still so new to me that I’m just kind of getting my feet under me figuring out what kinds of books I enjoy within that genre question number four
Is to name three non- bookish goals for 2024 I wanted my resolutions for 2024 to be really fun and not feel like a chore so I have a couple kind of different uh resolutions and goals for the coming year the first is that I got a pasta
Machine for Christmas it’s like one of those attachments that attaches onto my uh KitchenAid mixer and so it’ll roll and cut pasta for me without me having to like crank it myself so I really want to try at least 12 different pasta recipes in the coming year I’ve already
Made pasta three or four times but I primarily stuck to the same sauces and so I want to mix up both sauces and shapes and try different fillings and stuff I want to try making my own lasagna noodles I want to try making ravioli I’ve made feter Chini a couple
Times now and I want to make different spaghettis uh so we’re going to see it’s really really fun and I’m getting to try some new foods and new recipes and it definitely is very delicious and worth the time when I have like some dedicated cooking time on a weekend so that is one
Of my non- bookish goals to try 12 different uh new pasta recipes goal number two is that I would like to ride my exercise bike for 2,400 minutes in 2024 this is like the only form of exercise that I actually find somewhat palatable and I think that’s because I
Can do it from the comfort of my living room in my pajamas and most importantly while listening to an audiobook so this is prime audiobook listening time for me and I actually quite enjoy in the evening uh riding my bike for like 20 minutes while I unwind and listen to
Whatever audio book I have on the go and then a third non-book goal that I have for 2024 is to do a face mask every Sunday night I really like to have my most luxurious bedtime routine on Sunday evenings when I’m hyping myself up for another work week and one of the things
That always makes me feel really relaxed is to do a face mask I usually mix up my own like green clay and honey uh but every now and then I’ll do a sheet mask as well so that’s just uh a really fun relaxing little thing to make sure that
I am doing every week question number five is what is a book that you have had forever that you still need to read and there are many uh books on this bookshelf that I have had for quite a while I’ve never been someone who’s like stressed about trying to get down to a
Zero TBR but I wouldn’t mind uh going through and unhauling some books that either I have no intention of ever reading or that I have read and didn’t love enough to reread uh in which case there’s no real point in me keeping them on my shelves uh and as part of that I
Would like to read some of the books that I am still really interested in but I haven’t had a chance to pick up and one of those such books is small island by Andrea Levy I have had this book I think for close to 10 years and it was
One of those books that fell victim to my lack of personal reading time while I was in university you can see that I was really excited about it and I got to chapter 2 page 22 and uh then I probably had some giant uh essay that I had to
Write and I put this as side and never picked it back up but it is a historical fiction novel and it is focusing on the Windrush generation of Jamaican immigrants to the United Kingdom following the second world war and so we’re following a few characters Queenie blly who I’m assuming is this character
Who decides to take in Jamaican Lodgers much to the disapproval of her neighbors at the time uh as well as Gilbert and honess Joseph uh I’m assuming this is hess uh and they are Jamaican immigrant ANS who are just arriving in the UK and kind of trying to adjust to life there
Gilbert had served in the second world war and then he brought his wife honess to join him in the UK after the end of the war and so they’re trying to navigate Life In A Whole New World while England itself is still trying to rebuild from the war this is a pretty
Big book uh it has incredible reviews on Goodreads and I don’t know why I have never gotten around to pick it up uh but maybe I will in 2024 I’m hoping I’m hoping now that I’ve like dug it out of my shelf uh to talk about it on this tag
I’m reinvigorated and interested in it and I’m going to try to decide what month it fits into my reading schedule and Mark it down so I don’t forget about it and leave it to languish on my shelves for another 10 years and then question number six is one word that
You’re hoping 2024 will be I’m interpreting this question to be just about my reading life because trying to choose one word to Encompass my entire life feels a little bit overwhelming so uh for my reading life in 2024 for I hope that it is expansive I hope that
It’s expansive in terms of exploring new genres in terms of finding new to me authors that I fall in love with in terms of rereading old favorites and discovering new deths to love about them in terms of growing my community here on book I just hope that it’s a really
Expansive reading Year and that I come away at the end of 2024 feeling like I have learned a lot from the books that I picked up over the course of the year and then question number seven is to tag some friends so if you are watching this
And you feel like doing the tag I’ll have the questions and bookable original video linked below or if you want to share your answers to any of these questions in the comments I would be happy to read your thoughts thanks for watching and until next time enjoy
Wandering through the pages of a good book bye
4 Comments
I still need to read The Lacuna too!
LOL, I do that delay on Libby too! I'm enjoying another James Shapiro book about Shakespeare right now and I'm enjoying it so far! The Close Reads podcast hosts loved The Sun Walks Down!
Oh!!! I want to read Lacuna too!!
I started listening to the audiobook of The Lord of the Rings today. It's just over 22 hours. The Year of Lear sounds really interesting. I may have to add The Sun Walks Down to my pile of possibilities for Aussie April. I love how your face lit up when you talked about venturing into science fiction. I'm far too lazy to make my own pasta but have the utmost respect for those who do!