 upcoming read-alongs and things. Those people chose violence. It's plenty of time to catch up. I mean, you never can be sure, but I feel decently confident. I don't understand the appeal. 2023 is basically upon us, very, very nearly. So I think last year I tried to do my plans and things for 2022 video a little earlier, so I'm quite late on this. Sorry for the last minute notice. I've been meaning to do this video for a little while now. There are plans that I added to this list today, so I mean, who knows? Maybe by tomorrow I'll have even more plans. But anyway, so mainly this is going to be a list of read-alongs and things and then also at the end. I figured that's what you're most interested in, so I'm doing that first and then at the end I'll also just mention some personal plans and goals that I vaguely want to have for the upcoming year. Not much of a one for New Year's resolutions, but it's as good a time as any to assess what you're doing and being like, hmm, do I want to keep doing this? So anyway, a little bit of that at the end of the video. So I have 11 read-along buddy type of things to tell you about, which is overwhelming and hilarious because one of my reading goals towards the end of the video is about reading less. So, you know, upcoming read-alongs and things. I've listed them on my little cheat sheet in order of appearance, so like, some of them span the entire year, but like, if they start in January, then I'm talking about them first and then if something starts in February, then I'll talk about that next and so on and so forth. So anyway, first things first, the Witcher read-along on chapter 3 podcast. If you're not aware by now, I co-host the fantasy side of things on Bethany's podcast, chapter 3 podcast. She also talks about romance and stuff with Izzy. I am virtually never a part of those conversations for obvious reasons, but we do do the fantasy episodes together. Last year we did a year-long read-along of First Love. This year we're doing a year-long read-along. Well, it's not going to be quite the whole year, but most of the year to read the Witcher books. Just like with First Love, this will be a reread for me and first time for Bethany. And we tested out doing a live show for Wisdom of Crowns and that went quite well. So I believe the plan is to do live shows for all over the Witcher books on the last Tuesday of every month as much as possible. If that schedule needs to change for some reason, we'll obviously let you know. But that's the plan, the last Tuesday of every month to do a live show on the Witcher books. And we've been doing bonus content for patrons, usually just kind of like about whatever, about we want to be more intentional about bonus content with Witcher. So all the bonus content, at least on the fantasy side of things, will in some way be related to either directly the Witcher book that we've just read or the world of the Witcher or something Witcher related we'll talk about in the bonus content. So check that out. But so the reading order we're going to do for the Witcher books is going to be January, we read The Last Wish, February we read Sword of Destiny, then in March we take a bit of a break. I don't know what we're going to talk about in March. Then in April we start the main proper series and read it straight through so it'll be April is Blood of Elves, May is Time of Contempt, June is Baptism of Fire, July is Tower of Swallows, and August is Lady of the Lake. Then in September we take another quick break. Again, don't know what we're going to do. And then October we're going to read Season of Storms, which is the only book that I have not read. So that will be new for us both. So if you've read them or not read them or I've always wanted to read them or read some of them but not all of them, you know, consider joining us and joining in with the live shows. It's so great to be able to talk to people. Me and Bethany love talking to each other. That's why we're doing all these readings together. But it's nice to have some new voices and questions to the conversation and add some more fodder for discussion. So definitely, definitely join us if you've read them before or if you'd like to join us in reading them now. Next up is something that I'm just doing by myself, unless, you know, people would like to come and join me. I say by myself, I mean, I'm going to be posting content about it. But a year of gaming, I posted a poll asking people would be interested and basically the consensus is yes. There were some people that voted not interested in gaming at all. And those people chose violence. So I also asked if people would want to see videos or live shows. It seems like videos was more the interest than live shows, but I'm open to having my mind changed about that. What is not changing is the books that I'm reading and the order that I'm reading them in. And again, I invite you to join me. I'll let me know again. If there's other people that would like to join me in this other content creators, if people would like live shows, instead of in addition to videos right now, what I plan to do is to read these books and post videos about it each month. These are almost 100% rereads. Yeah, there's only one book that's not a reread. Because I've read basically every game that there is. So anyway, it's just a year of gaming just because I want to do it because I love gaming. He doesn't have any new books coming out. So I don't have much of a reason to chat about him on my channel. So I'm just creating a reason. And I was trying to figure out what order I should do this in it. And I thought, since most of them are standalone, so there's no like natural series reading order, I decided I'd read them in publication order just because it's a good as order. It's a good of order. It's as good an order as any. But I also thought it might be kind of interesting to see if his writing, like if I am able to observe his writing like change over time by reading it in publication order. So the reading order for gaming will be January, Never Wear, February, Stardust, March, Smoke and Mirrors, April, American Gods, May, Coraline, June, Anansi Boys, July, Fragile Things, August, Graveyard Book, September, Ocean at the End of the Lane, October, Trigger Warning, November, The View from the Cheap Seats, and December, Noisemathology. The only one of those that I've never read before is Fragile Things. So I'm quite excited too. I think at that point I will actually have read everything. There might be some children's books that I have not read. I think they definitely are. But anyway, all of his novels, I will have read. So that's gaming. Next up I have three. Yes, I have three things going on on my Patreon that are readalongs. So first is Book of the New Sun, me and a bunch of my patrons. I haven't really promised or talked to them about whether or not they want to do some kind of live chats about them because we do have a monthly buddy read for which we do a live chat. So doing another live chat for this readalong. I don't know if we want to do that. Maybe we will. We'll see if people want to that I'm definitely down to. But we haven't like definitely decided to do that. But we are on the Discord, definitely going to be reading in January. Shadow of the Torchware in February. Claw of the Consiliator in March. Sword of the Lictor in April. Citadel of the Autarch and in May Earth of the New Sun. I have read the first three already but I didn't manage to read the fourth one and I've realized that if I want to read the fourth one I do need to read the first three over again and I think it'd be good too anyway. And then yeah I've never touched obviously Earth of the New Sun because I didn't read the fourth one yet either. So I'm super excited to actually finish that series and do a video on the whole series. Probably one of those like should you read it type videos which I've decided I like to do when I finish series. Just started doing it. I'm super excited for that. And then also my Patreon they voted on our next buddy read and our next buddy read is going to be a readalong that's what they voted on. So we're going to be reading the Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell. This is my first Bernard Cornwell. I have heard amazing things. I've also heard that this is his best which is like that's exciting but also like maybe not the greatest idea to start there if it's all downhill from there but I have heard that just generally his books are very very good. So I mean I don't really think that reading this will ruin me for his other books which you'll see. So the Warlord Chronicles are three books. These are Arthurian books. So in January we'll be reading The Winter King. In February we'll be reading Enemy of God and in March we'll be reading Excalibur. There will be live shows for this because our buddy reads for the Patreon always have live shows that are like four patrons only. And then the runner up to Warlord Chronicles and the vote was like really really close so the official winner of the buddy read that has live shows associated with it is the Warlord Chronicles but the I said the runner up with with very which was very very close was His Dark Materials which is I have read His Dark Materials before but I just read the Book of Dust and with that almost won so I asked my patrons I was like okay I know I didn't win but do people want to read His Dark Materials January February March like would we would people be down and they basically a lot of people said yes so we're doing that too. I think because we're doing it too and because it was the runner up I'll see if people want to chat about both in our monthly live shows for our buddy reads but we're definitely reading them together and chatting about them in the discord. So obviously the schedule for that would be January we would read the Northern Lights slash Golden Compass depending on which country in which edition you have then in February the Subtle Knife and in March the Amber Spyglass. Next quickly the Northern Sky the Under the Northern Sky series which I've been hosting a read-along for with Alex and Alan and kind of Jimmy we're wrapping it up with a cuckoo in January so there's still time it's only a trilogy so there's still time to catch up we will probably talk about the cuckoo towards the end of January or the beginning of February that's plenty of time to catch up if you have not read The Wolf and the Spider yet so get on it the books are amazing and I don't think I have posted it yet as of this video going up but I did interview Leo Karoo and I'm very excited to share that interview with you guys and hopefully if you're not already hyped and you're not already reading these books seeing that interview might spark your interest so look out for that very soon and another continuation Alex from Alex and I have been reading The Sunny Eater books together for a while now and since we caught up on the series we've just kind of like checked in every time there's a new one so Ashes of Man just came out in December so we're going to read it in January and do another live chat to chat about it and then because we also recently got Queen Amid Ashes or Queen Amid Ashes the it's another bind up of short stories in the world of The Sunny Eater we're going to talk about that as well like last time we talked about Kingdoms of Death and also the Lesser Devil well I read the Lesser Devil Alex didn't Alex is always late on his homework but um we're for sure talking about Ashes of Man and um in theory also Queen Amid Ashes in uh in January or again like ideally January or at least reading it in January and then chatting about it either end of January or beginning of February if you haven't caught up with Sunny Eater yet I don't know that that's enough time to catch up uh that's a lot of books a lot of reading to do but if you would like to try to catch up with us so you can chat about it with us then you're you're more than welcome then another continuation a realm of the Elderlings which I've been going through with Mar from books like well we wrapped up the Rain Wild Chronicles in December and uh we decided once we did that then in January we could do a live show to chat about we've kind of been doing live shows as we finish each um kind of series within the realm of the Elderlings so we're going to do a chat about Rain Wild Chronicles in January and then starting in February we're not skipping months we're just getting it done February March and April we're reading the Fits in the Fool series the last series in the realm of the Elderlings so after that we'll probably do a final chat about that that trilogy slash like overall the realm of the Elderlings and um wait I won't say it yet it's later on my list but there's a part two of a reading with Mara but next uh Red Rising a new book is finally coming out and it's not the last one it was supposed to be the last one but it's it's not going to be the last one the new book Lightbringer comes out this summer in July and myself and Angela from Literature Science Alliance are going to do a read-along for the Red Rising books in the anticipation of that release so we're going to start in February so that our reading kind of coincides with the release of the last book so February we read Red Rising and then continue reading the series until July when the new one comes out and then read that as well but more more over not only is this a read-along this one might be the most exciting maybe I should have opened with it my friend who runs the shop creatively crafts um my discount code for her shop is always in the description of my videos and a lot of her mugs are on the bookshelves behind me in videos she is a huge fan of Red Rising if you've ever checked out her shop like legitimately half of what she sells is Red Rising related she's obviously super pumped about the new Red Rising book and so she's going to be working with us to put together some giveaways to go along with the read-along we have not completely squared away details of what the giveaway will be and how many there will be we would like to do more than one giveaway I don't know if it will be actually monthly um possibly like possibly smaller giveaways monthly and then bigger ones like at the end of each trilogy or something like that um but certainly some exclusive items that would be only for the giveaway um mug pin things like that um so stay tuned for that and in the meantime do check out her shop then uh next I have Five Warrior Angels by Brian Lee Durfee Erin from Booked and Busy very kindly invited me to read these books with her and chat about them on her channel uh so we will I believe the trilogy the conclusion of the trilogy did just come out at the end of 2023 so in November or December so it's it's completed so we're going to read the whole thing uh in January February March we're going to read The Forgetting Moon in January then The Blackest Heart in February and The Lonesome Crown in March I've heard amazing things about this series and it very much intrigues me what I've heard about it they are pretty thick books so I really hope I like them because they are long books to be hating if I am debating them I feel I mean you never can be sure but I feel decently confident that I will like these books at the very least I think there will be a lot to talk about them a lot in them to talk about is yeah okay anyway so I'm very excited for you reading those with Erin uh so check uh she did an announcement video for several real lungs kind of like this one um so I'll leave that linked down below um as well and last is part two of Reading with Mara so when we finish the Realm of the Elderlings we've broken her down she's gonna read First Law we've gotten her to agree to reading the original trilogy um and then we'll see how we go hopefully she's in love and wants to keep going I have not tortured that promise out of her yet but uh we're gonna do live shows plural ideally um possibly just one when we finish the trilogy we have not like confirmed but I am can confirm when we finish Realm of the Elderlings starting in May she and I are gonna reread the blade itself it's obviously a reread for me but it's a reread for her as well and then June July before they are hanged and last argument of Kings uh and I'm obviously very excited to have a reason to be reading First Law again and I'm excited to be chatting with Mara about it and with all of you for however many live shows we end up doing for it and those are all the read-along type things that I have to tell you about then just some plans for myself or some goals for myself um I do want to do some more vlog projects um they kind of are a lot of work but I have a lot of fun doing them so if you don't want to tell you about I did four vlog vlog projects um in 2022 um so I did books that were inspired by music I did uh looking for another secret history or looking for dark academia and then I did a two-parter of classics rereading old favorite classics I see if they're still my favorites and reading classics I've never read before to try and find a new favorite classic so those are the four vlog projects that I ended up getting done in 2022. On my list in my notes app of like potential vlog project ideas I still have a couple that I didn't get to do in 2022 so I would like to do them in 2023 and I've also since then thought of some more vlog projects that I would like to do um so I want to give myself space for doing it because it does take up time to read those books um and if my TBRs are bursting then I don't have as much room on them to do vlog projects which are secret so anyway um I definitely like doing them I definitely do want to do more of them and have more space for them I also want to have more time for writing um I've started offering writing updates as one of my patreon perks and that's been honestly really great for me because I always uh in the past have kind of um not prioritized writing because there is no accountability mechanism for it there's no one waiting for me to submit something there's no one waiting for me to upload something I'm not accountable to anyone but myself and so everything else always gets bumped ahead of it um because reading I post videos about it um my job that I get paid for obviously like my boss wants to make sure I'm doing my job and I just yeah I just don't writing is always the last priority so now because I have been offering writing updates um that has motivated me to actually prioritize it more which is fantastic I've actually made such amazing progress and it's making progress is motivational so it's like a happy cycle not a vicious one of um once you've got the motivation or like a reason to like start the ball rolling then it just rolls easier and faster if that makes sense so I'm very very excited to make more progress on writing and to make time for that but also to um read stuff I mentioned this I think it was one of my goals for 2022 and that didn't happen I want to take the time to actually like I have collected so many books and um and films and and videos and things that I want to watch consume read study that would just help me with fleshing out some things in my world and help me with um it's fantasy obviously that I'm writing but helping with accuracy and things like that in the parts that are more inspired by real things um so I really again want to make space for that in my schedule to to do that to prioritize that um and this was one of my goals last year is to read less and then I read like over 200 books in 2022 so again going with all that keeps saying I want to make space I want to make room I want to have time um so I want to have less reading um so that I have more time for reading that makes no sense but you know what I mean like uh less books on my tbr less less things crowding my time less just like getting through books so I can really take my time with the books that I am reading and savor them um so that I have time to read books that are like research for my own writing and time for writing that's not reading at all so yeah I mean I would actually like to read less like for realsies this time I did prioritize I don't know if this was one of my goals I don't I don't remember I could check but I didn't um to read what I own I think that's always everyone's goal and I actually did a pretty good job with that in 2022 um I don't like posting book hauls that's the main reason I haven't done it it's not that I haven't bought books I've definitely bought books but I just I don't like doing book hauls I'm sorry I know people like watching them I know it's easy content to do now it's popular content to do I hate filming book hauls I don't like watching them either I don't understand the appeal frankly so I just don't do them but I was pretty good in 2022 about only buying books that I needed to buy for like for my vlog project or for read-alongs or for you know buddy reads with my um patrons things like that or for reads that my patrons assigned me to read because they get to make me read a book every month usually it's a book that I don't own so I have to go and buy it so really I the only things I was buying in 2022 for the most part were books that I was going to read right away or like limited special fancy editions you know things like that that you know you got to get it now or never so that's mostly what I was buying I was trying my the buddy reads that I put on the poll for my patrons are like 99.9% just books I own pick something I own guys let's read it together so I want to continue that and be even more diligent about it about reading the books that I own and not putting things on my tbr unless I already own it unless again it's like a read-along or something where my patrons are making me read and then I also want to prioritize I'm finishing some series and starting some series this is again every reader's goal so in general I just want to do that um some that are like kind of top priorities for finishing series uh green bone saga I really thought I would finish it in 2022 time got away from I still have time technically I could finish it between filming this video and finishing the year but I don't think that's gonna happen so I just need to read Jade Legacy I'm really excited to read it I haven't yet realm of the elderlings this is taken care of by reading it with Mara but I mean I do want to finish the realm of the elderlings skyward I read the first book in 2021 um I did hear kind of negative things about the later books but I own the next two so I kind of like to catch up at least uh The Inheritance Trilogy which is I read the first one again in 2021 I think by NK Jemisin so I might I don't think I think it's pretty vividly still in my mind I don't think I would need to reread it to read on but anyway there's two more books that I haven't read that I would like to read The Inheritance Games I read the first one in this last fall and I thought that I would binge the rest but I just haven't I just haven't there's not really a legitimate reason I just haven't but I would like to um it was just a lot of fun reading the first one um they're not like amazing brilliant literature but I had a good time and I'd like to finish it then the War for the Rose Throne I read Priest of Bones like when it came out and then I never continued the series so base this maybe should go in starting series because I would need to restart it at this point I put it on finishing series because I did read Priest of Bones and I really liked it I just need to read the rest and then Hyperion um I again I thought I would I semi-agreed to finish that series in 2022 and then that didn't happen I read Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion um I would like to read the it's I think I believe a quartet so I would like to read the last two books um finish that out I really enjoyed Hyperion I enjoyed Fall of Hyperion at least but I still was quite impressed and then series that I'd like to start hopefully I like Burning Cornwall because I'm already reading Warlord Chronicles and one of my top priorities to start is the Saxon stories I think is what the last Kingdom series is called I think that it's actually called the Saxon stories I could be wrong about that I'd like to read The Expanse I've always wanted to read The Expanse I meant to read it before watching the show but I have seen a couple episodes of the show and I haven't like continued with it um everyone's always talking about those books they always look like such fun but also like a massive commitment but I would also like to read more sci-fi I don't really read much sci-fi so I would like to read The Expanse or start it anyway I would like to start and finish the last hours because I keep collecting those books and I haven't read a single one of them so I could have like beautiful special editions of them so I would like to confirm if I like these books and then if I don't well then I can sell them I would like to read Echoes of the Fall which is The Tiger and the Wolf by Adrienne Tchaikovsky I have all those books haven't read them I got them because they're beautiful I love those covers I hope I like them I liked Guns of the Dawn so hopefully I'll like them and again NK Jemisin Dreamblood duology I intended that to be my next NK Jemisin after finishing Broken Earth uh but then my patrons picked the first inheritance book um so that's what I read in 2021 and now I haven't finished inheritance or started Dreamblood I would like to do both in 2023 finish inheritance and start and finish Dreamblood so yeah that's what's happening with me in 2023 uh let me know in the comments down below if you'll be joining me for any of these endeavors if you're excited about them if you could care less about them if you think my plans and goals suck whatever you want to let me know I post videos on Saturdays other random homes will open Saturdays so like and subscribe join my Patreon if you feel so inclined and I'll see you when I see you