This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl asks us to share our bookish goals for 2024. But first, let me do a final touch of 2023’s goals:

Last year I finished 52 books, 12 of which I own. The other 40 were from the library, including 14 audiobooks. (Thank god for libraries!) Nearly a third were from diverse authors and about a quarter by authors who were not Americans (including four in translation — three from Japanese and one from Swedish). Five books were nonfiction, one was poetry, and the rest were fiction (10 of which were graphic novels).

I failed completely at only two and generally hit the mark on most of the rest, so, yay!

Now, for this year:

1. Read 52 books.
2. Review said books here on the blog, even if it’s just a couple of sentences. And get any best of lists — definitely 2023, but did I post one for 2022? — published here, too.
3. Buy books in another country. (More info on this goal coming soon!)
4. Read at least two classics, including a Russian novel.
5. Finish the School Library Journal’s Top 100 Children’s Books. (Maybe I have 15 left to go, none of which were at my local library branch when I checked for them last month. (The system has them, so I just need to place some holds.))
6. Read 13 books from my own collection, including at least five I’ve had for more than two years.
7. Listen to 20 audiobooks.
8. Read at least three books of poetry.
9. Read at least five books in translation.
10. Get all my books onto shelves (which will necessitate donating some to make space).

How about you? Do you have bookish goals for this year?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. It’s been ages (like since spring), but BW and I finally got a chance to have a nice, long call to catch up.

2. Our volleyball team beat the #2 team on a solid hit by one of my teammates who is sometimes reluctant to spike the ball to advance to the league finals. We lost that game, but the four of us who went out for dinner afterwards agreed that it was a good night regardless.

3. My new passport has arrived in record time. (Literally — it took a week.)

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. For the first time since the pandemic, Sarah, Rudi, and I resumed our New Year’s Eve movie marathon. (It was a mini marathon, but still!) We watched The Color Purple and Wonka — and enjoyed both — and ate Chinese food in lieu of pizza because Ella’s was closed. But at midnight, we were together, and that is what has been lacking since 2019.

2. Chris and Julie treat me to supper at a local restaurant the night after I get back to town on my own.

3. I baked last week and both cookies I made here were delicious and easy.

Salted peanut butter cookies (with thanks to Chris for his birthday request and Smitten Kitchen for coming through with a recipe, as I fully expected her to):

Gochujang caramel cookies (an Eric Kim recipe from the New York Times I’ve had open in a tab since December 2022 (not a typo), proving you really may eventually get back to it):

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

I’m working on my top ten books of 2023, but in the meantime wanted to share that Bout of Books is currently going on. You should join me in reading — as much or as little as you want — this week.

The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01 a.m. Monday, January 1st, and runs through Sunday, January 7th, in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are reading sprints, daily Discord questions, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional. For all Bout of Books 39 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I track down my dad’s favorite tea at a grocery store near them. It used to be at nearly every store, then only at stores around Jewish holidays, and now is only stocked by the occasional shop, so it felt really good to bring home a couple boxes. (Particularly since I drank so much of it on them when I was staying up there!)

2. Chris and Neal and I go out for a festive dinner of Italian food.

3. Christmas was different this year. Not bad. Just low-key. But Rudi and I and my parents were all together. And that was enough.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Friends, we’ve made it. Done or not, we have reached the night before Christmas.

Thank you for coming along with us all these past 24 days. Thanks to Rudi, Marg, and raidergirl3 for their posts along the way.

Rudi and I drove north last night, which gave us a chance to listen to WXPN’s Robert Drake in his The Night Before The Night Before. We got the pre-show, but if you tune in to WXPN from Philadelphia anytime today, you’ll catch Drake’s main holiday show.

Another Christmas Eve tradition of mine is to watch Christmas Eve on Sesame Street:

If you don’t have time for the live broadcast, nor an hour for Jim Henson, may I offer Stan Rogers’ “At Last I’m Ready for Christmas,” which is far shorter:

If you celebrate, Merry Christmas. And if you don’t, peace on earth to us all.