Book Chase 2024 Reading Plan: A Shift of Focus

Looking back at a list of the 122 books I read in 2023 leaves me with mixed emotions. On the one hand, this year's reading included a handful of the best books I've ever read, but on the other, I can't help but feel that I wasted too many of the precious reading hours I have left to me. I suppose, however, that I'm lucky to finish the year feeling more positive than not about what I've been reading in the last few months.

That said, I've been considering ways that are, I sincerely hope, more likely to make me feel generally better about 2024's reading than I feel about 2023's. Some of what I've come up with seems contradictory, I admit, but this is what I'm thinking:

• A deep dive into the back catalogs of those mystery writers who have influenced all those who followed them (writers like Anna Katherine Green, Dorothy L. Sayers, Katherine V. Forest, P.D. James, among many others)
• Reading some relatively early mysteries by writers from Europe, Africa, Central America, South America, Japan/Asia, etc.
• Read pioneering mysteries from women, African-Americans, Native Americans, etc. - especially those who were writing in the 1940s-1960s
• Use Nancy Pearl's three Book Lust titles for a little help choosing books from the early 2000s that won't disappoint me
• Reading more literary, character-driven novels no matter their genre

Here's where the contradiction comes in, though, because I also plan to:

• Read some of the books resting on my own shelves, few of which fall into the categories up above (although my extensive Library of America collection will be a big help)
• Accept more review copies than last year, while at the same time selecting them more carefully than ever before - and reminding myself as often as needed that publishers are not doing me a favor by providing an ARC; it's really the other way around
• Consider reading the entire 2024 Booker Prize list, but start much earlier than I did on the 2023 list
• Read and review standalone short stories from current magazines
• Read 2024 titles but doing a better job of distinguishing between quality titles and "eye-candy"
• Read more nonfiction (a goal I fail at every single year)
• Allow for, and don't feel guilty about reading, "wildcard" books, books that come out of nowhere to force their way into my hands

I'm hoping that my energy level, family obligations, health considerations, etc. allow me to maintain the surge in my reading and blogging that began in June of 2023 when I was able to return from an extended blogging absence. Anyway, that's the plan. It's probably overambitious, but at the very least, it will be interesting (to me) to look back on this post at the end of 2024 to see how close I came.