Unless my recent fortune comes true, I plan on 2012 being a quiet and peaceful year! ::grin::
I have a couple of reading goals and plans that I'm pretty excited about for this year. So, without further ado (since I really should get to the gym today!) --
First, read at least 50 books from my home TBR stacks. I've put the ones I anticipate wanting to read on a LibraryThing list (here, if you're curious) but I know I will switch some out for other books as the year goes on. And, as you can see, the list is only at 49 because I already finished one today!
Second, read Gregory Maguire's Oz quartet from the beginning. I've read Wicked twice and Son of a Witch once but haven't read the other two books in the series yet and I think I will enjoy them better if I just start again. I don't know if I will read them all in one block or (more likely) just fit them in one at a time through the year.
Third, re-read three Matthew Pearl novels. I just read (and loved) his new novel, The Technologists, that comes out in February and it reminded me how much I loved his first three novels -- The Dante Club, The Poe Shadow and The Last Dickens. And I happen to have signed bookplates for each one now (thank you, Matthew!) that I will put in as I finish each book. (Although I'm thinking that I now need to get a nice hardcover of Dante because I just have a mass market paperback of it.)
Fourth, successfully progress through my Year of Dickens (look for my launch post in February) for the Dickens Bicentenary. I'm sure it will be a trial at times (I almost just made a really bad Chancery joke but I resisted) but I'll be inserting favorites when I need a morale boost and I should be okay.
Fifth, I want to read more non-fiction and international/translated fiction but I'm not going to commit to specific numbers. I will just go with a loose "more than last year" kind of goal on this one.
I've decided to start recording the chapter books that Z and I read together at bedtime in my spreadsheet because they really should count as books/pages read for me too.
And I think that's it! Some clearing of my TBR shelves (LibraryThing seems to think I have 236 unread books here), a few re-reads of old favorites and a grand celebration of a favorite author -- what more can I ask for in 2012?!
Moving forward with a bounce in my step,
K
I've read several of your To Read list - I think you'll really enjoy Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Oryx and Crake is seriously disturbing but I need to re-read it soon (I liked the parallel The Year of the Flood), Gaskell's North and South was different to how I imagined it would be, and I really enjoyed Remarkable Creatures.
ReplyDeleteI have 1Q84 on my list for this year, too, and the Tesla bio really appeals to me.
Good luck with the Dickens challenge - I've only promised to try and read three of his books.
I also plan to read lots of international books, with the 52 countries challenge. see links t all my 2012 challenges at the end of my 2011 recap: http://wordsandpeace.com/2011/12/30/year-of-reading-2011/
ReplyDelete50 books from your own TBR + more non-fiction sounds like a good plan... Mine's a tad different with having 10 unread books on the shelf come end of year (which is very ambitious) and reading at least 10 non-fiction books!
ReplyDeleteAlso, more international books is always good - I've been reading approximately ten annually, but would quite like that number to go up.
Happy reading in 2012 :o)
Good luck on your goals! I looked at your tbr pile on LibraryThing. Wonderstruck is a great book. 1Q84 and Doomsday Book are on my reading list for this year. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteWhat great goals!! And I'm secretly happy to see so many people reading books from their shelves (tired of seeing so many posts for books that aren't even out yet!).
ReplyDeleteHope you have a very happy new year. Quiet and peaceful.
I'm working on reading from my shelves too!
ReplyDeleteTracy - I'm glad that you have high opinions of some of my TBR books. Many are ones that I keep putting off for various reasons and I just need to resolve to read them! I can't wait to read Dickens with you this year. :)
ReplyDeleteWords - I'm avoiding challenges again this year (except for the loosest ones) but I sort of wish that I had a few to help me get through some of these plans!
Anothercookie - The only problem is that it doesn't make a very large dent in the TBR. ;) And I will definitely watch to see if you manage to end up with only 10 unread books on the shelf!
Vasilly - I'm excited to read Wonderstruck. I think I might read it with the kid as we really enjoyed reading Hugo Cabret together. And Doomsday Book will probably be one of my next reads. I'm very excited about it!
Trish - I fully agree. There are years and years of books that are better than 90% of what comes out each new year. We can't allow those books to be forgotten in the flood of new shinies!
Jenners - It's a grand goal! And we put those books onto the shelves for a reason, right? It's time to read them!