Let's Take A Look At My 2022 Reading Spreadsheet 🤓 | The Book Castle | 2023 

I don't think how many books a person reads matters once they read over 12 a year. I am fairly old and I think for most of my life I have read about one book a week but I never kept track except every few years I create a new type of journaling for books. Right now I make word search puzzles for each book I read and it is fun to have a game to play after finishing a book. I pick words as I am reading, one word for every 15 pages that is important to the storyline. What you may want on your spread sheet is how many books you buy per month. I used to buy maybe 4 books a month but now I buy books for my husband also. I buy them at thrift stores and library sales. I really enjoy watching your book vlogs and other endeavors. You are lovely and seem sweet. Take care and have fun reading, no pressure from me.

=SUM(K16:K27) 😜 You can just type =SUM and then select all of the cells that you want to sum at once. Lovely video, made me want to kickstart my reading this year!

I did let everything go around 2 months ago and I’ve never been better! Things seems much easier, I read more and I have fun doing it instead of feeling like I have to do it. Wish you a wonderful 2023 full of happiness! 😊💕

I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit! Over 14000 pages is solid. This totally inspired me to go make a spreadsheet, too :)

If I don't set a reading goal I read around 15-20 books a year and I'm just not happy with that number. I've set my goal at 50 this year and I think it's the perfect number for me. It's encouraging but doesn't stress me out.

I also set a goal of 52 books for 2023. I think if I read at least 50 pages a day I can reach 52 books for the year. I'll see how 2023 goes.

This is the first year that I'm going to try for 100 books! I have a ton of short books (200ish pages) to get to, so in February I'm going to do a 28 books in 28 days challenge with those, and then I think I won't stress out about it the rest of the year.

Good video. I am trying something new this year. I do use Goodreads and I normally add the book as soon as I pick it up. Now I am reading 2 chapters, and if I’m not getting into it, I’m putting it down and moving onto the next one (obviously there will be a few exceptions- books I’ve bought full price or liked a previous by that author etc, I’m mostly talking about library loans and freebies/cheapies here). I will only be adding the book once I’m sure I actually want to read it. I really want to stop adding DNF’s to my total, and hopefully read better books by just quitting early rather than keep pushing through and end up in a reading slump or taking forever to read one book because really I’m not interested in it. So far this year I’ve read two 5 star reads and put one down at chapter one. Could be a fluke, we will see!

Being a booknerd myself, I love statistics and lists. I keep a physical notebook with all the books I've read, wishlists and short reviews, but also a Goodread and as of late Storygraph. Imo the latter would be something for you. It's black-owned and the statistics are chef's kiss.

Waouh Alice! I am impressed !

I also discovered Storygraph last year which gives you pie charts of your reading!

I can relate to many of your reading struggles/experiences. I'm naturally a goal oriented person but also a mood reader. These two qualities can often be in conflict with one another. I'm learning to let myself embrace reading what I want to in the moment. Any reading is quality time with my favorite restorative hobby.

I looooove a spreadsheet. I've been using one for a few years now and it's so, SO satisfying. Goals for 2023: read 40 books (which is realistic as I read a little over 40 for the past 3 years); and I've pulled out 10 specific books from my TBR that I absolutely want to get to at some point during the year - I've done that for the past 2 years and it worked great. Other than that, I'll be my mood reader/seasonal reader self ;)

That’s a nice spreadsheet! I have a ton of books to get to as well, but don’t make nearly the dent that you do! On your spreadsheet, you can just highlight the group of boxes, then hit the sum symbol, you don’t have to add each box individually.

Can you please do a video on your favourite BAME/BIPOC authors and their books you’ve read?

I think if you watch a lot of booktube/bookstagram etc you get a very skewed idea of how much people read - people on here read 200 or 300 books a year and I feel like my 123 last year is low - but the "average" person probably reads less than 10 books a year so it just depends who you're comparing yourself to I guess. I want to get through lots purely because I have loads more I want to read and will never get through in my life! That said, I've really enjoyed re-reading last year and that doesn't reduce my number of unread books at all. 🙂

I don’t know if you’ve read Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata? If you haven’t I want to tell you that I listened to it on audio and it was really a good book to listen to. It’s rather short too which might be good if you struggle with the listening.

I use a spreadsheet in a super similar manner too - seeing the percentages of various categories I care about throughout the year also helps me prioritize my next reads (as long as I'm in the mood!). And I'm in the same boat of having intended to read more translated work, but not getting in nearly as much as I'd hoped. 😁

I love a good statistic 😍 I’m so surprised you got into audiobooks - but in a good way, I love audiobooks so much and I wouldn’t read as much as I do without them 😊 I’m actually currently listening to Hamnet as per your recommendation and the narrator is SO GOOD!

Oh my, now I want a spreadsheet, especially because I loved the "most read author" category that Goodreads used to have and I just realised that I still could do that in a spreadseet.

I feel your pain on the reading slump... I only read 7 books last year, compared to my heights of 75 books 🙈. However 2023 is off to a great start. I'm actually reading a book at the moment that I feel like would be interesting for you (if you haven't already read). It's called The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. It's based in Barcelona during the 40s/50s but really picks up on the very gothic vibes of Barcelona and it is super readable. Plus it would tick the translated book category too 😄

Aah another spreadsheet lover! I use one too and it's always fun to see someone else's (because I'm nosey lol)