Thursday, January 01, 2009

Booking Through Thursday: New Year's Resolutions

This week's BTT topic (naturally enough):

So … any Reading Resolutions? Say, specific books you plan to read? A plan to read more ____? Anything at all?
Name me at least ONE thing you’re looking forward to reading this year!

Think I'll start with the second part of this topic: books I'm looking forward to reading in 2009. And there are a lot of them, so I'll just list a couple. One that I'm really itching to get my hands on is the new novel by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (The Angel's Game). I read his Shadow of the Wind a couple of years ago and loved it, so I'm really eager to see this new one. The English translation is due out sometime this spring. And I'm also looking forward to reading the new Adam Dalgliesh novel by P.D. James, The Private Patient. I've got my copy - now I just need to sit myself down and read it.

I suppose the only real reading resolution I have this year is the same as the one I had at the beginning of 2008 – read more books than I read during the previous year. I have quite a few specific books that I intend to read – I've got myself involved in fifteen challenges, so some of my reading agenda is already set. But most of that schedule is pretty flexible, and there are really only a few books that are must reads – I've left myself a lot of wiggle room in case interesting new books (or interesting new challenges) appear on the horizon.

In 2008 I read about forty-three books – I haven't done my wrap-up for the year, but I think that's right. I know that's not a lot by most standards, but it's more than twice as many as the nineteen I read in 2007. So I'm doing better, but there's definitely lots of room for improvement!

I'm relying heavily on the reading challenges I've joined. I know I wouldn't have gotten through all those books this year without the incentive provided by challenges, and the recommendations and reviews by other challenge participants. And LibraryThing's 50 Book Challenge discussion group has helped, too – I'm hoping in 2009 I can graduate to the 75 Book Challenge group!

So that's my resolution – read more! Not a bad goal – good for you and fun, too! Happy New (Reading) Year, everyone!

13 comments:

  1. I joined 15 challenges too and I'm looking forward to getting started. Good luck with yours!

    Happy New Year!

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  2. Oh, I hadn't heard og those two new books coming out this year - I'll have to add them to my wishlist.

    Happy New Year!

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  3. 15 Challenges? You have written your whole reading life for 2009 already. Hats off to you and your ambitious plan! Happy New Year.

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  4. You're amazing: 15 challenges! Happy New Year.

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  5. I'm not on top of new releases as I used to be. Maybe that's a good thing. Less temptation. Or a bad thing because it means more impulse buying. :-)

    I still need to read Shadow of the Wind. I am glad to hear you liked it.

    I hope to read more too this year. It's a good sturdy goal. :-)

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  6. Wow -- 15! Good luck with your challenges!

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  7. I love the challenges because it will certainly make me read outside of my comfort zone. You will most certainly make your goal of 75!!!

    Good Luck and happy reading in 2009!!

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  8. Resolution is never written on stone. I don’t want resolution to fetter my reading spontaneity. The rough sketch is that I should read more nonfiction this year--to get out of a comfort zone of fiction and read more "dangerously."

    Happy New Year! :)

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  9. That is a huge amount to read for 08.
    I am looking forward to reading more this year as I will be done with my degree in March then it will be reading for pleasure.
    Good luck

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  10. Reading more is not just a resolution, it's a way of life! LOL

    I'm looking forward to the new P.D. James too :)

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  11. I haven't made any resolutions, Joy, but I have also joined a lot of challenges. I plan to have fun reading and sometimes stepping (reading) outside my usual comfort zone.

    My full answer is here.

    Happy New Year to all!

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  12. angel's game is out in june. however i managed to get my hand on a proof copy and am currently reading it.

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