I realised something I omitted when I was making a post about the things I intended to do this year when it comes to books. For every bibliophile, and yeah, in all aspects, a lover of books, a year cannot begin without setting book goals. So while I was talking about what my goals were to one of my accountability partners, I said that my goal for this year as it concerns books is to read 100 books this year. 

And as I way of taking the pedestal higher, I said that at least 20 of them would be self-help or a better way of putting it, philosophical and psychological books. I’ve always loved the concept of psychology and it’s something I’ve promised myself to delve into in the coming years. I love the human mind. I like to *see* the human mind, not so I can predict it(even though I want to believe I can), but just to understand it. Know the inner workings and all of that.

The reason however I don’t pay mind to the people who try to advise me to stop paying mind to the novels I read and focus on more “realistic” books is that I just can’t seem to fathom why they think that way. Why would you think that I’m doing myself a disservice by reading lots of novels? I don’t think people who read solely self-help books are silly. I think they are quite true to what they want to get out of life, to be honest. 


![](https://images.ecency.com/DQmRveRmR7m5jWeE5u65eFWCQdWXYwwELDVjtdfWGmqUBqx/1705175635010.png)


However, as a fiction writer, I can say with all amount of certainty that if I read a thousand self-help books alone, I wouldn’t be a quarter as good as I am. Because at the end of the day, we want to entertain people by appealing to their imagination. You can’t achieve growth as a fiction writer if all you read are Philosophical books.

I don’t want to talk too much on the subject so I’ll calmly return to the matter at hand. My Book Goals!!! So when I wrote down in my journal that I’d read a hundred books, that was when I began to think. Before pleasure(because reading ~~novels~~ books has always been a pleasure to me), I thought to myself, “What about my academics?” I have a very precise goal I’m set to achieve this year academically. 

It’s really important to me that I achieve this because I consider it a life and death issue. And I don’t mean it figuratively. If I didn’t achieve this goal, I feel like a part of me would die inside. So even though I’m all about manifesting positivity this year, I still want to give it my all to avoid *mistakes.*  And so I began to second guess myself. *Will I be able to do it? Can I effectively combine my book and academic goals?* You know, those sorts of thoughts.

At the end of my deliberations, I decided that it wouldn’t do me any justice to overthink. I’ll take each day as it comes by reading academic books as a priority, and in my spare time, reading non-academic ones. As if God was sending a sign, a fellow book-loving friend that I haven’t talked to in a while, sent me screenshots of a few books she found on the internet and would love me to read. They are quite different from the books I’d normally read, both in their authors and in their style and they looked so aesthetically pleasing, that I found ways to download them and right now they’re currently sitting warm in my e-library.



![](https://images.ecency.com/DQmVMRpXU5HWS7Vcucmq3wyQ4uma3Ak8v6UZ5XkeHwSBEzp/1705173378408.jpg)


So here’s the first set. I loved the fact that most of the books are ones written by Black Authors and from the looks of it, emphasize the Black woman, strengths, successes and all. These books(minus the one about how to write essays which I randomly downloaded because why not), have something about them that seems to call onto me. Hehe. And I can’t wait to find out what it’s about.


![](https://images.ecency.com/DQmSpswb2cTPWG4488vueVrU9eSi9WjpmnaVVzQfF7yYWzu/1705173393364.jpg)


The next one, *drumroll*, are these babies. I’m so sorry, the titles of the stories are so weird, I spent the better part of five minutes laughing. But it’s the kind of weird that gets me curious. The kind of weird that says, “*do you dare to open and find out what’s within?”* I don’t have a husband. I most certainly love men and have no intentions of killing them(at least not literally), nor do I bear any form of ill will for my family. But if it’s to know what could possibly be behind these pages, I want to know. Fingers crossed. These would be the next batch of books that I read. Yeah, plus that baby at the left. So exciting.


![](https://images.ecency.com/DQmX5C4FpLjDArAoFKk3iK9gGXq1is3A4ToJyVzK7dN6Abe/1705173409452.jpg)

![](https://images.ecency.com/DQmUuFYNWMJdnnE21pvM6MMArqTYzYwGG8sj7qFwkcYkrhc/1705173409477.jpg)


These last sets were a bit more random. While downloading the other Black Power-inclined books, I saw them and I said, hey, why not? I like that book by Alice Feeney, the best selling author and since, it looked nice, I added it too. And then in a reckless whim, I downloaded Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. We treated Classics a while back in school and I just felt like this would be a nice read. Reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte as an academic study currently. Let’s just get this year started already!

I’m also currently reading Nora Roberts’ Born Trilogy. I’m still reading the first one, **Born in Fire,** which I’ll give a review on later. All the best to my Book-lovers out there and may all your Book goals, academic, pleasure, or otherwise....come true.

## Jhymi🖤

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<sub>*Thumbnail created on Canva.
Other images are screenshots from my e-library.*</sub>
 
![](https://images.ecency.com/DQmWYNa2EvNgdUfKhK57uM77DRk2MRfJkZZusQEiwYDSrGY/k75bszmwynu2l3ibmxq5y7xeiy1isfjszxnmzsxuxesxe4ee1cukgypmueqg8xjuxhznatr6akzkczarrahm5iotrgpgrz7bdly1q2f3cjippxwkkjuaweetsbe9oyp5rhxfvp2juab3bkq99zohfytvzdp6le8mb_1_.gif)

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