I realize I’m awfully late out of the gate on this one but thought I would post it anyway. Anyone making New Year’s reading resolutions, so to speak? More fantasies? A higher diet of classics? Certain books that you’ve just got to read this year?
And for those of you who made reading resolutions last year, how did you fare? Did you reach your goals?
I’ve got a few mini-resolutions to kick off things:
Read at least 12 classics
Read at least 12 nonfics
Read at least 20 books I’ve already got on my shelves that I bought umpty-odd years ago and kept meaning to read but never have (all the better if they fit into categories 1 & 2 also).
I’m in the middle of three books I’ve checked out of the library (Consider Phlebus, Slow Reading in an Internet Age, and Alan Turing: The Enigma). I’m only about a quarter of the way through the Turing book, and I have to return it in three days (it’s on someone’s wait list). It’s highly unlikely I’ll have it finished before then.
Resolved: For the rest of 2014, read some of the umpteen-hundred books that belong to me (I determined a decade ago that I’ll never, ever be able to read all of the books I’ve bought), and find another way to support the Denver Public Library besides checking out books.
Sounds good to me. I know I won’t be able to resist acquiring new books, but maybe I can read two or three from the stack for each one I buy.
A few years ago I resolved to read one book from each of the past 100 years, and managed more than 50 (I cheated and counted ones I’d already read). I think I’ll revive that one. It was fun, checking Wiki to find older books.
I should resolve to read outside my comfort zone, to read more Asian/African/South American authors.
Oh, that’s a cool one. I once read a book starting with each letter of the alphabet. I tried to use large classics that I’d never gotten around to (“A” was Anna Karenina; “L” was Les Miserables). I’ve been thinking about trying another series like that, but I never thought about doing it by year.
Published in 1914: Dubliners and The Dead by James Joyce; In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka. Fun year. I think maybe I’ll go with The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs or Tik-Tok of Oz by Frank L. Baum instead.
Letters from a Woman Homesteader is from 1914, and it’s a Kindle freebie. And a good read. Parts of the book were made into the movie Heartland with Conchata Ferrell and Rip torn.
My main reading resolution is to post book reviews here & on GoodReads in a timely manner - I have way too many books on my “needs-review” GR shelf that I remember little about at this point. I’m about ready to just delete the shelf & start fresh. (Note to self - go over to the Whatcha Readin’ thread and post your review on Duel with the Devil RIGHT NOW!)
I also want to work on Mount ToBeRead - mostly analog, but some ebooks & audiobooks are on the list as well. Oooh - and there’s a bunch of re-reads I want to get back to this year too!
Well now another thread has lead me to the Mystery Writers of America list of Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time, and the discovery that I have only read 38 of them. So there’s 62 more books on my list…to add to the 117 I have waiting to be read on my Kindle.
Mine is to read 25 books. 2012 was my last full year of college. My goal was 50 books that year and I ended the year with 52. Last year was 30 and I read 12. I really do need to get back onto the habit.
My most specific resolutions are a) that I’m going to try and read 100 books, and b) that I’m going to focus on reading complete series without other books in between. I think it’ll help me keep track of plot threads better, and also immerse me more deeply in the world of the series.
More vaguely, I’m going to finally read some of the many books I own but haven’t gotten around to reading yet, and also reread a bunch of old favourites. Kind of opposite resolutions, but they both come from the idea that I should love the books I have rather than just buying new ones all the time. (Though I am still going to buy new ones, I’m only human!)
And I would resolve to join in the Whatcha Reading threads, but every time I make that resolution I always end up posting about the first few books of the month then forgetting the thread exists.
I’m tracking through Goodreads but I’ve already made one mistake. I picked something up in a Kindle daily deal for 99p and it was just awful - badly written, dull, inept. I forced myself to get through it, so that at least I would have started on my target. It was only once I’d finished the thing that I noticed it was some self-published e-book and it isn’t even listed on Goodreads! So week 3 and I’m only on 1 book read. Sure I’ll make it though…
I’ve resolved to read the classics assigned to my son for his AP English class (can’t let him out-literature me): The Great Gatsby The Crucible The Grapes of Wrath The Things They Carried
I’m halfway through The Grapes of Wrath, and it’s very good.
Like others, I’m always intending to read more classics and more non-fiction, and to whittle away at my to-read list before buying new books. I’m also trying to read more science fiction - I’m gradually going through the list of Hugo award nominees.
Setting hard goals doesn’t always work for me, though. I’m a moody reader, and it makes me unhappy to pick up a book that doesn’t feel right for me at the moment.
Have you checked out the book list in The New Lifetime Reading Plan? I recall it as suggesting some good Asian authors but not as many African ones. Still a good resource, though.
SpoilerVirgin, I couldn’t resist Googling the list… oh boy. I thought I’d read me some mysteries, but I’ve barely scratched the surface of that list.
Any tried-and-failed books you want to attempt again? For some odd reason, I find myself unable to finish the following:
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie: Two attempts.
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy O’Toole: Three attempts.
The Pickwick Papers: Three attempts at least, maybe four.
Out of Eden by Alan Burwick: Three attempts.
There are others too, but I’d like to actually finish these this year. Why they’ve defeated me, I have no idea.
There were/are people on Goodreads who’d break 200 a year easily. My best year since I began actively tracking was 2012, when I read 196. It helps that I read multiple books concurrently.
–audiobook for walking [current: Cutting for Stone]
–ebook for the treadmill [current: Tea Time for the Traditionally Built]
–paper bathtub book [current: The Cure for Everything]
–paper bedroom book [current: Wild Borneo: The Wildlife and Scenery of Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei, and Kalimantan]
I do have Moby Dick, my tried and failed book, in e- and audio format for sometime when I’m unexpectedly stuck somewhere for 12-24 hours.
The Pickwick Papers has defeated me too – and I made it through Bleak House and Our Mutual Friend, among others (part of my attempt to read all of Dickens in my lifetime).
Other books that are still in my Kindle “to be finished” category:
The Janissary Tree - Part of an Ottoman Empire mystery series recommended to me by someone who loves Turkey.
The Vicar of Wakefield - I love She Stoops to Conquer, and it was free on Kindle.
God is Not One - I read through Islam and Christianity, but Confucianism defeated me.
The Publisher - Written by my favorite college professor.
But life is too short – and my book list is too long – to worry too much about books that I can’t get through. Now I read the sample on my Kindle, and if I don’t want to go further, that’s it.
