I used to read every single day as a child. My Grandma encouraged my love for books. She had an awe inspiring array of shelves in her room, lined with musty hardbacks and crinkled paperbacks and large packages would arrive weekly full of new stories for her to dive into, once she had finished the stack already sitting on her desk.

So, this year, I’ve decided I need to read more. As a writer, it’s so important you read other people’s work; to broaden your vocabulary, source inspiration and take a break from the screen! I mean, I need glasses now because I’ve spent the past 10 or so years constantly looking at a screen.

With this new ‘goal’ in mind, I returned to my Goodreads account (please feel free to add me as a friend and recommend any horror books you love), which I hadn’t touched since University (naughty). It’s a good way of listing books you want to tick off your reading list and update regularly, plus if you add your friends you can see what they’re reading and recommend.

I initially put 50 books on my list, but then I realised that was a little ambitious because I need time to game and write in the evenings – and scroll Instagram for hours at a time like I sometimes find myself guilty of doing.

50 books in a year would pretty much mean reading one a week, and so I dropped it down to 30. I think it’s nice to have a goal amount to work towards and it’s satisfying to update your progress and rate the books you’ve read as you go along.

Here’s what I’m currently reading:

Library of Souls: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs 

I’ve nearly completed Ransom Rigg’s final Peculiar Children book and I’m going to be very sad when it’s all over. The story is so original and the notion of basing every event in the story on a vintage photograph reminds me of creative writing classes and being given a prompt to inspire your next piece of work. It’s an ingenious way of navigating the story and what I enjoy most about his novels. Plus, who doesn’t love a book with pictures?

Drop Dead Gorgeous by Wayne Simmons 

I’ve always found zombie fiction to be great fun but I’m finding this book series hard to get into. The premise is interesting, as a majority of the population in Dublin drop dead one morning with only a handful of survivors left to work out what is happening. However, the main protagonists are very strange and completely unbelievable when it comes to how they react to the situation – if anything, they’re a little bit twisted. I’ll try to carry on, mainly because I was gifted a couple more of the books in the series for Christmas but won’t be recommending it to anyone so far.

The Walking Dead: The Rise of the Governor by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga 

I came across this two part series in HMV, both books were available to buy together for £5 and because I love TWD I thought I’d give them a go. They’re what I’m moving onto once I finish Peculiar Children and a friend confirmed that they’re worth a read.

I’m also still working my way through the Game of Thrones series, but I’ve been trying to get through those FOREVER. I’ve also got all of the Harry Potter books on my list, but I usually reread those every year.

Are you taking on a Goodreads challenge this year? If so, how many books have you got planned?

Jade