I don’t really make New Years Resolutions, preferring to stick to shorter term goals, but reading is an exception to the rule. It’s been pretty cool to see my yearly reading grow through GoodReads reading challenges. After reading 45 new books in 2013, I decided to take my new book goal down to 40 and focusing instead on what I was reading. (I do want to do a goal of 50 one of these years, then 52… but it doesn’t feel right yet)
40 seems to be a good number. I’m not having to intentionally pad my reading with “easy stuff,” but I still need to be reading pretty regularly to keep up. 40 only includes new books, so my actual count is higher because of rereads. (1) My 2015 goal is to read 40 new books.
Revisiting Old Goals
In writing my post about my 2014 reading goals, I saw where I succeeded or failed, and I also saw that some goals were better than others for improving the quality of my reading.
1. Publication year. I didn’t do a great job at reading older books, but I’m not sure I would have enjoyed my yearly reading more if I did. I’ll revisit this at one point, particularly for reading “the classics,” but for this year, the main thing I want to ensure is that I don’t read as many books published in 2015! There’s too much good stuff from 2010-2014 that I haven’t read.
2. Non-fiction. I really, really want to do more of this, but I’m finding that putting a numerical goal just encourages me to read non-fiction that is easier for me to finish, like memoirs. So I will not have a yearly goal for non-fiction this year, just general intent. And I will probably take up some sort of month-long non-fiction challenge at some point.
3. Recommendations. Failed at this one and I don’t have a strong urge to pursue it again this year.
4. Books that I already own. This, and more of this. I have so many good books on my shelves that I haven’t read. In addition to setting a numerical goal for this, I’m also going to put a “tripwire” in – I have to have read certain numbers of books I own by specific checkpoints through the year, or I can’t read anything else until the number is met. This should help me be less tempted by the 2015 releases. (2) My 2015 goal is to read 24 books that I already own (rereads count). 2 by the end of January, 4 by the end of February, etc.
5. Rereads. This is great and I want to do more of it. Tripwires for this one as well. (3) My 2015 goal is to reread 10 books. 3 by the end of April, and 3 by the end of August.
New Goals
I think that even the subset of my old goals is a pretty good focus for me. But I’m bringing in some casual new goals just to see how it goes. Definitely less of a priority.
1. Indie publisher. I read so much mainstream, and I like it. But sometimes it all starts to blend together. At the end of this year, I picked up a copy of Does Not Love by James Tadd Adcox based on a blog review, and it was refreshing to read something written in such a different style. (4) My 2015 goal is to read 3 books published by an independent publisher.
2. Ignore the reviews. Goodreads is fantastic, but what happened to spontaneity? I used to pick out random stuff that sounded interesting at the bookstore and the library without consulting the voices of the Internet, and now I find myself reluctant to read anything with reviews much lower than a 4. (5) My 2015 goal is to read 3 books that I haven’t seen reviews for and haven’t previously heard of.
Do you have any reading goals for 2015? Here’s to an enlightening, entertaining new year of reading!
