Culturally Relevant

QUIZ: What Should Your 2023 Bookish New Year’s Resolution Be?

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Susie Dumond

Senior Contributor

Susie (she/her) is a queer writer originally from Little Rock, now living in Washington, DC. She is the author of QUEERLY BELOVED and the forthcoming LOOKING FOR A SIGN from Dial Press/Random House. You can find her on Instagram @susiedoom.

The new year is just around the corner, and it’s the perfect time to plan your 2023 reading goals! How do you want to grow or shift your reading life next year? Do you want to build a stronger bookish community? Do you want to dive into writing your own book? There are so many ways to embrace your love of books, and I see resolutions as a great way to stretch yourself to try something different. Take this bookish new year’s resolution quiz to get a suggestion for a fresh way to approach your reading life in 2023.

There are several bookish new year’s resolutions that come up again and again among readers. Read more books! Weed your TBR! Try new genres! Diversify your reading! All of those are great ideas, and things I personally try to do all the time. (Minus weeding my TBR. That’s one I always say I’ll do, but don’t often get around to it.) But with this quiz, I tried to shake things up a bit. There are eight possible results that I hope will inspire you to try something new in your reading life. Scroll to the bottom of this article to check out all the ideas for a very bookish 2023.

Bookish New Year’s Resolution Quiz

Bookish New Year’s Resolution Quiz Results

Attend Author Events

Author events are a fantastic way to engage with the bookish community. Book release celebrations and author panels can teach you more about books you love, change your perspective, and entertain you. Even better, they’re a great place to meet new book-loving friends! Check with your local independent bookstores or library to see what they’re offering, or follow your favorite authors on social media to find out about virtual events.

image of a personal home library kit with stamp, book cards, and notepad

Catalog Your Home Library

Do your bookshelves seem to have grown a mind of their own? Make 2023 your year to organize and document all the books in your collection. Whether it’s in a spreadsheet or with a personal home library kit, a little tidying up of your bookshelves will bring a fresh mindset to your reading.

Do Some Bookish Volunteering

It’s time to give back to your bookish community! In 2023, find a volunteer opportunity related to books. Whether it’s helping out your library, reading to kids at a local school, or connecting with a nonprofit that celebrates books, volunteering is a great way to spread the literary love.

Fight Back Against Book Bans

The U.S. is experiencing record-breaking numbers of book bans on state and local levels. Spend 2023 advocating for free access to books in your community, schools, and libraries. Set yourself a task each month to fight book bans, whether it’s attending town halls and protests, writing letters to legislators, or any of these activities suggested in our anti-censorship tool kit.

Join a Book Club

Being able to discuss a book with your own bookish community totally changes the way you interact with the text. Whether you join a romance book club, a book and wine pairing club, or even a cookbook club, you can find new friends and great new reads. Now is the perfect time to find a book club in your area. Or if you can’t find one that appeals to you, start your own!

Start a Book Exchange with Friends

Here’s a twist on your average book club: find some reading friends and start a book exchange! Each person picks a book, whether it’s new to them or an old favorite. As you read through your book choice, leave sticky notes (or write directly in the book if that doesn’t make you cringe!) with your thoughts and reactions. Then pass it to the next person. By the time each book has made the rounds, it will be full of notes from your friends, making rereading it a whole new adventure.

Book Marks: A Reading Tracker cover

Use a Reading Journal

Keeping a book journal or reading log can be transformative. It’s a fantastic way to remember what you’ve read, engage more critically with the text, and meet your reading goals. We’re obviously partial to this Book Marks reading tracker from Book Riot, but any journal — or even a digital log — will do.

Visit Settings from Your Favorite Books

Are you hoping to travel more in 2023? Make a goal of visiting the locations where some of your favorite books take place! You can pick places near you for easy day trips, exotic locations across the globe, or anything in between. Or if you’ve already got travel planned, read books set where you’re headed!


We hope you enjoyed this inspiration for your 2023 bookish new year’s resolutions! You might also like:

8 Bookish New Year’s Resolution Ideas to Improve Your Reading Life

Reading Resolutions You’ll Actually Keep

8 of the Best Books for New Year’s Resolution Lists