Sunday, January 13, 2013

Sunday Salon: 2013 Reading Resolutions


Time to set my reading and blogging goals for this year. I have been thinking about them a lot over the last few weeks and have some ideas but to be honest, most of the goals that I will be setting this year will be very similar to the ones that I have had in the last couple of years, mainly because these seem to be working for me.

Read 200 books - Last year I read more than 290 books which is the most I have read in a single year, and the year before it was 220. For the last few years, I have set my goal as being 150 books but it seems clear that amount is way below my natural reading level so I have changed it to 200 for this year.

Read 10 books that I owned as at 31 December 2012 - Every year I read less books that I own than come into my house. This is my attempt to try to make sure that I read at least a few that have been on my shelves for a while.

Read more Australian authors - This is one of the goals that I set every year and in the preceding years I would be pleased that I read 10-15. Last year, thanks predominantly to the Australian Women Writer's Challenge, I read more than 40. I am hoping to have another great year focused on Aussie authors this year. In addition to the challenge I just mentioned I am also participating in the Aussie Author challenge, which I will use to focus on male Australian authors and I have chosen to adapt the Historical Fiction challenge so that only Australian historical fiction counts! I am also contemplating trying to read the inaugural Stella Prize shortlist when it is announced in March.

Read some classics - A few years ago I aimed to read Dorothy Dunnett, and didn't manage to even crack open a book, and still haven't in fact. Last year, I said I would read more Dickens and then promptly forgot. This year I am planning to finish Les Miserables, join in the War and Peace readalong that Amy and Iris are running and maybe read Pride and Prejudice seeing as it is coming up to the 200th anniversary of it being published.

Perpetual Challenges - I am aiming to read at least one book for each of the perpetual challenges that I am signed up for like The Pulitzer Project, the Orange Prize Project, and the Complete Booker.  (This is one that I say every year too!

Review more consistently - This is what I have written for the last couple of years "Over the last couple of years I have allowed myself to get very lazy about writing reviews of the books I read. I still start a blog post for every book, but not enough of them see light of day! This year, I am going to try to write at least one review a week, preferably more. Need to get back into the habit. I know that that really isn't many, but I do also want to be a no guilt blogger as well, because at the end of the day blogging is supposed to enrich our lives and be fun and not something that we are slave to." I was better at it last year I think, but there is still room for more consistent reviewing. All of that is still relevant for this year!

Deadline Reading - I want to back off a little from deadline reading whether it be for library due dates, tours, egalley expiry dates and try to be a little organic in my reading in terms of being able to look at my shelf, or the library shelf and have a little more room to just read what I feel like reading! I am not quite sure how to quantify this one, except in terms of how I am feeling, but I will try to! I did halve the number of library books I had out towards the end of last year so I am going to try and be careful not to let the number of books out creep up again. The irony is that often I find having a deadline helps me get to those books that I knew I wanted to read anyway!

So, there you have it! My reading and blogging resolutions for 2013. Have you made blogging resolutions for this year?

Currently Reading

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Unforgettable by Elise K Ackers.

Up Next

Night Music by Jojo Moyes will be my next audiobook and The Wedding Shroud by Elisabeth Storrs (it's the only book I am taking away with me so it will be my takeoff and landing book!)

24 comments:

  1. Great resolutions. I'm envious about how many books you read!

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  2. A lot of my resolutions are similar to yours, I really need to read books I've had for a while as well as the new ones, and reviewing a larger percentage of them wouldn't hurt me either! Good luck.

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  3. I sympathise with you on the review front. I meant to get to all my 2012 outstanding reviews over christmas and never managed even one!

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    1. I will never actually catch up with all the reviews I have sitting in draft, but I am usually okay with that.

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  4. Deadline reading can be totally overwhelming. And reading what I own .. good idea.

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    Replies
    1. It does seem like a good idea and yet we find it so difficult.

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  5. Wonderful resolutions. I keep my resolutions short and small in my desperate attempt to achieve them.

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  6. I became much more organic in my reading last year and I think it was a fantastic decision for me - it made me feel much more in control of my reading and more willing to branch out and try new things. I hope it has the same for you!

    I want to read Dunnett's King Hereafter this year - I say that every year, too ;-) I hear it's her best but it is SO LONG.

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    1. Maybe later in the year we could do a joint read of a Dunnett book?

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  7. Great goals and I hope you achieve them this year. And I hear ya about the deadline reading! I'm working on this too.

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    1. It seems I am not doing so well on this one so far, but there is still a lot of year left to go.

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  8. I'm awed at how many books you read last year. I'm still aiming for my goal (now perpetual) of 100 books a year. I've decided to blog more frequently and about books I've read, like you I got away from it for a little bit two years ago. I want to read more classics, though I average about one a year. I have a few other goals, that I will be posting about this week. I enjoyed reading about your goals, Marg. It will be interesting to see what you read now that you are not going to read on deadline, and what you read because you want to. I did that two years ago - though I still join challenges, I want to read for pleasure. I hope you achieve all your goals this year!

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    1. I probably end up reading one classic a year myself, although I have plans to read three this year.

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  9. These are really great resolutions, even if they are the same as last year. I like the idea of reading more from my shelves, and should try to make that my mantra. I have so many books to choose from, it's ridiculous and I really need to read them!! Good Luck with all this, Marg!

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    Replies
    1. It is a bit sad that we want books so badly that we buy them and then don't actually get time to read them.

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  10. I see we are Twitter Connections now. :)

    Love you blog.

    Elizabeth
    Silver's Reviews

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  11. Good luck with your goals! I've moved away from review deadlines myself, except a few here and there for tours I really want to be part of. I can't believe you read 290 books, that's awesome! I always come in around 120, but I say quality is more important than quantity. :)

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    1. I like to think that there is some quality in there too! lol

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  12. Good luck with your reading resolutions!!

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  13. I really love your plan to read ten books you owned as of December 31, I think that's very clever and also smart.

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