My 2024 Reading Agenda

Happy New Year, friends and followers. We welcomed 2024 by watching fireworks on the beach at Brighton after a free train ride. 

My most delightful news is that we've finally erected a new pride and joy. This street library is the carpentry project my hubby has been working on for quite some time. It is now up and running out by our street side fence. We've had it operating for less than a week and already I'm finding it great fun to facilitate excellent quality free books to the community. Ever since I first started hunting down these little free libraries, I've dreamed of joining the network. It's finally happened. Such a wonderful outreach for a bookworm, don't you think? 

Incidentally, it's also been set up as a Pokemon pit stop. A passionate neighbour on our community chat FB group came and did that. 

Now, I've been dedicated to delivering a weekly, book themed blog post on Thursdays or Fridays for quite some time. 2023's is complete. I'll have another crack at it for 2024, although a few factors might slow me down. 

1) I've had a hankering to re-read some good novels which I've already reviewed. It won't be necessary to give them two reviews. 

2) I might spend some time working on my fiction projects. I'll share more about this when (or if) they come to fruition.

3) It turns out I've been functioning for at least the last few years on an empty tank. I've started 2024 with a much-needed iron infusion. I didn't know how urgent it was until I had some blood tests the day before Christmas Eve. They were my first since 2019. Oooh, now I understand why I've been puffing and panting while climbing slopes and doing housework. Maybe I should slow down in general. 

However, I'll see how I go. Since this blog is one of my favourite hobbies, I may well end up with 52 posts after all. If you'd like email notifications whenever I add a new post, just click the subscribe button in this blog's toolbar. I peomise you'll never be spammed, and you won't miss a single one either, however frequently or infrequently I post.

For the past few years, I've been adding a new blog page for the start of each new year. In 2022 it was my Trixie Belden Marathon, which was a burst of nostalgia I adored. Last year at the start of 2023 I added my Agatha Christie, Queen of Crime page, which is more of an ongoing, slow burn. For 2024 I've decided to add Spiritual Classics. That'll have to be uplifting, right? I've already added a list of older posts to kick it off, and you'll see that fiction titles trump non-fiction for now. 

I'll finish off with a rough agenda for the start of this year. No doubt I'll latch onto something unanticipated which will snowball. But for now, I have these four Pulitzer prizewinning titles picked up from various places, so I'll factor them into my early reads of the year. I've also acquired a good handful of WW2 fiction, including a couple that were gifts. It's time I got stuck into them. And of course I'll include some Victorian novels. I haven't missed a year of at least one Dickens novel since 2017 when I started my quest to read all his major works. It's taking a while, but too much Dickens all at once makes my head explode.   

I hope you'll stick with me, enjoy my reviews and discussions, and share your own reading journey during 2024.