bibliosue's 2012 Reading Resolutions

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you all had a safe and wonderful holiday.  Christmas was spent quietly at home, and the last week of the year was an extremely busy blur at the office so I did not do anything for New Year's Eve except relax. 

So ... 2012 is upon us and I started thinking about what I want to accomplish with my reading and in turn with my blog.  As much as I love getting free books to review and though a small part of me wants to be an esteemed book critic (I can be delusional sometimes), I think that for 2012 I am going to move away from this.  I don't do a lot of formal reviewing but when I do it sometimes feels like I'm doing homework and that takes away some of my enjoyment of the reading experience.  I still plan on writing reviews, but it will be for books that I have selected and obtained on my own. 

Given the state of my to-read shelves I really should impose a book-buying embargo, but I know that just is not going to happen (I'm going up to Toronto next week and have a list of books to pick up when I'm there).  What I can commit to, though, is a concentrated effort to control my impulsive book purchases so that I can catch up on what I already own and only purchase books that I genuinely want to read right away.

I don't think I will set a goal for the number of books to read in 2012.  I read over 120 in each of the last two years and I think that is good enough for me.  I would like to pay attention to what I'm reading rather than how much I'm reading and again given the state of my to-read shelves this is a challenge to avoid wanting to rush through one book to get to the next one. 

Do you have any reading goals for the new year? 

January Reading List and 2011 Reading Resolutions

  Happy New Year everyone!  I hope that 2011 brings everyone health and happiness and many great books to read and discuss.

  Thanks in part to my blog, in 2010 I read more books than I ever have before - 128 - and I'm sure that my list of to-read books has increased by that much.  Of course I'd love to be able to read more, but I don't want to sacrifice quality for quantity; I'd rather read less books and enjoy them than read more books just to say I've read more and then not remember any of them.
  That said, I am resolving to read 11 more books in 2011.  I just found about a challenge on my favorite book blog/podcast -- Books on the Nightstand -- to read 11 more books in 2011 than you did in 2010 and I think that it is achievable.  Though to make it more challenging I am going to aim to read at  least some of these 11 books in French, especially as my ability in the language improves (oh yeah, and that is resolution #2).
  I am also resolving to whittle down my overwhelming to-read shelves.  Don't laugh -- I'm really going to try.  I have committed to three reading challenges for 2011 and with one exception (which I know I can get at the library) I will be able to complete all of them with books I already own.  I won't say that I will stop buying books, but I am definitely going to cut it down and I am going to use my closest indie bookseller as much as I can when I do splurge on a new book(s).
  For my blog, I am resolving to post three times a week.  The blog is a hobby for me, but I also feel that I need to work on it regularly in order to get the most enjoyment out of it and, since I mentioned before that I'm needy when it comes to comments, if I don't post enough people won't visit or comment.

 So to start 2011, this is my reading list for January:
       Book groups:     The Speed of Light by Elizabeth Rosner
                                 War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy (ok, a bit of a cheat since I started it in November in order to finish in time for our group discussion, but I will be reading it at least into the first week of January)
       Challenges:          The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon  for the Back to the Classics Challenge (Books on the Nightstand will also be hosting an online chat/discussion of this book in January so check out their site for the date and time)
                                  The Whole Five Feet by Christopher R. Beha for the What's in a Name 4 Challenge
                                  Travel as a Political Act by Rick Steves for the 2011 TBR Pile Challenge
                                  The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis for the Canadian Book Challenge 4

 This list should keep me going through the long cold winter nights.