Top Ten Tuesday – Top 10 Reading Resolutions for 2014

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week, participating bloggers respond to the given topic with their own top 10 list.  I participate as time allows and as the theme appeals to me.

Running a little late on this one today.  Good thing none of my resolutions have to do with doing things on time.

I’m not that big on making resolutions.  However, I already have several goals in mind for what/how I want to read this year.  All of the goals kind of mingle together, with the general theme being that I want to become more familiar with common authors and genres.

Multiple books by different authors in different genres

A sampling of many different books
Photo CC by Joe Shlabotnik

The ultimate goal is to improve my skills as a future readers’ advisor librarian.  Reading across the board is just the first step.

  1. Read (in general).  When I was younger I used to read all the time.  You would rarely find me without a book.  Entering adulthood, I was overwhelmed with other responsibilities (mostly involving choices that make it seem like I have been in school eternally).  I turned to other methods of decompressing.  As I near graduation, though, I want to return to enjoying reading as a hobby.
  2. Read outside my comfort zone.  I know the authors and genres of books that will be an easy, entertaining read for me, without too much brain power.  These books have fulfilled a need: rest, relax, don’t think too hard (usually after a semester has ended).  But I want to expand my reading selections.  I want to discover new authors and was recently surprised by a book outside my typical genre choices.
  3. Complete the Literary Exploration Challenge.  To complement the previous goal, I want to read from a variety of genres.  Following the Literary Exploration Challenge, I am going to attempt the Insane Challenge to explore a multitude of new books.  I may even throw in aspects from a couple of other reading challenges I have seen, such as choosing a book that meets a certain theme or whose title includes a certain keyword.
  4. Read 50 books.  That number is a little intimidating to me, but I do not think it is unachievable (particularly if I complete the Reading Challenge).  In fact, I hope to read more than that, but I want to aim for some number.  I have seen people participating in the Goodreads challenges in the past.  This year I have pledged my number.  Apparently Goodreads will tell you when you are falling behind (or so I’ve heard; I have yet to experience the “friendly reminder”).
  5. Read new books.  This probably seems ridiculous for most people who keep up-to-date with all the new books.  Honestly, because I have been so removed from most books for what feels like so long, I would not feel comfortable talking to people about books, particularly new books.  If I was to go through the “Must-read” and “Best of” lists from the last, oh… 10 years, the number of “Read” books would be very, very low.
  6. Catch up on old books.   There are household names whose books I never read.  One of my goals this year is to fit some of those books and some of those authors into my reading.
  7. Learn to write book reviews/annotations.  Many of the reviews I read seem to contain the majority of the book review clichés contained in this Examiner article (thanks to Molly at wrapped up in books for sharing this).  I need to find examples of good reviewers and learn what works and what does not work.
  8. Learn appeal factors and what makes a good read-alike.  I follow Becky over at RA for All and plan to use the categories from the reviews on her students’ blog as a guideline for information to include in my practice reviews.  I also love the way Becky chooses books as read-alikes.  She does not just use the theme of the book or the genre (which is an easy trap to fall into), but rather the tone, pace, setting, etc.
  9. Learn to speed read/skim books.  These books will not be included in my total of actual books read for the year.  This will just be an exercise as a method of becoming familiar with more books and authors very quickly, learning the writing style, pacing, and basic format.  There is certainly no replacement for actually reading a book, but there is also no way to read every book ever written.
  10. Don’t stress out about not completing any of the above. I do not need to be perfect.  I do not need to achieve everything.  I have a lot of other hobbies and still at least one semester left of graduate school.  I need to make sure I give myself a break.

What are your goals for reading this year?  If you met your goals last year, share them in the comments.
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