I can hardly believe that 2019 has arrived so quickly.  2018 was a good reading year as a whole for me because I did complete my Goodreads goal to read 60 books.  I also read 461 more pages than last year.  However, there were quite a few things that did not go as planned that I hope to improve this year.

I didn’t get a chance to read very many Caribbean lit books. I managed to read 3 – one poetry collection Satellite City and Other Stories by  Alecia McKenzie is a wonderful short story collection that plunges the reader into the ambience of living on an island and Jamaican culture. , The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, Afro-Dominican writer, is YA novel in verse that will grab your heart and won’t let it go. It’s beautifully lyrical and relatable to all ages. This is a book not to miss, and finally Slave Old Man a short literary fiction novella written to perfection by Patrick Chamoiseau.  The beautiful descriptions take you through the plush green sinister nature of Martinique to the uncertain life of an old slave who finally seeks freedom. All three are excellent books that are well worth 4.5 -5 stars. So I will definitely continue on my Caribbean journey because I still have much to discover and experience.

I also joined the #readingblackoutchanllenge(=to read only African-American writers during the year) which I did for half of the year. Of my 60 books read, 35 books were by African-American writers. This was an interesting challenge.  It got me started on reading the Easy Rawlins series by Walter Mosley.  I managed to read the first four books and they were really good.  There are a total of 13 books in the series so I’m going to try to see how many I can get through this year. Reading this series was a great reading surprise for me. I couldn’t believe how much I liked them and kept asking myself why it took me so long to start reading them.

So many books, so little time is the phrase we should all have engraved somewhere. How we torture ourselves over all of the new books coming out each year. Well I won’t be doing that this year.  I have already pre-ordered a few but I will be focusing on trying to finish reading all the books by certain authors, for example I still need to read Love and Paradise to finish all of Toni Morrison’s books.I still have books to finish by Jamaica Kincaid, Edwidge Danticat, Colson Whitehead, even Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie and many others. My year will be devoted to backlist books (If you want to join me use #backlistbooks2019 when you post about a booul you’re reading that isn’t from this year.) and some new ones here and there.

As for reading challenges, I’ll be choosing them as I go along during the year, but I have decided to participate in the Ghana reading challenge(spearheaded by African Book Addict, go check out her blog for more info), which is to read 5 books within the year which are by a Ghanaian writer.  It turns out I have quite a few which are already on my backlist for this year. I’ll also be trying to read at least 10 big books that are 400 pages and over this year.  I do this challenge every year because it helps me not forget those huge door stops that have a tendency top be overlooked because of their size.  We have to remember that big is not always synonymous with fear.  There are some great big books pout there and I hope I’m going to put my hands on at least ten of them.

Now, I’d love to read more than 60 books but I don’t dare set my total Goodreads goal for more books. Last year the goal was set at 60 and this year I sat the goal at 50.  If I get a chance to read more I will be thrilled, but essentially I’d like to be able to choose 4 and 5 star books. I reaching for quality.

So, that’s all for the reading goals but I do have some writing goals concerning this blog and that’s to write at least 1 blog post a week and to finish each month with a recap of what I read for the month.  This means I won’t be recapping over on my YouTube channel.  I’d like to balance my time between here and YouTube. The other place where you can get bookish updates from me is Instagram and Twitter.  Click the links to follow me over there.  Thanks for taking the time to read my posts and to support the blog, my YouTube channel, and Instagram! I really appreciate it.  2019 is going to be a stellar year all around and the bookish communities seem to be gearing up  for some great reading and sharing!  Let me know below how your 2018 in reading went and what you have planned as reading goals for 2019.