Thursday 2 January 2014

2014 Goals

So now that the wrap-up has been posted, I feel like I can take time to talk about my 2014 goals, or "bookish resolutions", if you will.

I have a few.

#1: Read 50 books in 2014

This is always my target. I've been tracking my reading with Goodreads since 2011 and every year I set a goal of 50 books. I have yet to achieve it.

And what kills me is that I know I'm capable of it. My best so far is 44 books, and that is so close. Every year I know I'm going to get waylaid in November by NaNoWriMo. It always happens. I have a hard time reading when I'm writing. So that month is always basically a total write-off. Like, I'm lucky if I read one book that month.

This past year, September hit me pretty hard too. For whatever reason I was overwhelmed and then just plain old exhausted by my teaching schedule. So I fell behind before November even started.

So my plan this year is to read like a mad-woman in the summer and build up a considerable buffer. At least a 4 book buffer. Because that will take care of November. But I'm thinking I might try for an 8 book buffer, just in case September sucks again.

#2: The Alphabet Challenge

I just posted a new page about this a moment ago. This is another challenge that I have yet to be successful at. Reading one book for every letter of the alphabet is surprisingly more difficult than you'd think.

Regardless, I'll continue to track my progress. One of these years I'm going to pull it off!

#3: Bookshelf Reading

I'm actually terrible. I buy books all the time and they mostly just sit on my shelf. For whatever reason I'm horrible at reading what I already own.

Somehow, my brain is wired with this concept of a deadline. I can plough through books from the library with ease--because some part of me knows there's a deadline attached. I have to read these books because I have to take them back. This is obviously not the case with my bookshelf books, which makes it hard for me to get to them.

So, I'm proposing a self-inflicted challenge. For every book I take out of the library, I have to read one off my bookshelf. So, if I take out two library books, I have to read one book I already own between them and then one book after before I can take out any more. I feel like this will keep the pressure of the deadline on me while also making a dent in my tbr pile.

We'll see.

#4: eReading

My lovely Kobo does not get enough use. And there are books on there that I don't even remember buying. So my goal this year is to read at least one book on my Kobo each month. And yes, this can count as my in-between-library-books reading requirement. Might as well kill two birds with one stone after all.

#5: Finish what you started

Another thing that I am terrible at is reading series all the way through. Unless it's a book that really grabs me, I usually am content to let it sit rather than rushing out to find the next book.

It means that I've started a lot of series and never finished them. And for some of them, that's okay. A book wasn't interesting enough or I didn't like it enough to pursue it further. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the series that were good or interesting or even just okay but that I've heard promising things about. I want to get through them.

Divergent is actually one of the big ones on this list. I read the first book in 2012 and while the ending sort of left a bad taste in my mouth, it's a hard series to ignore now. What with the movie coming out and everything. And I know Allegiant has people in an uproar, I sort of want to be in the know on this one. So, I'm going to try to fight off all the kids at my school for copies of the trilogy--starting with rereading Divergent and going from there.

So there we go! 5 goals for 2014.

What do you think? What are your bookish goals or resolutions for the new year? Let me know!