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Who’s making bookish resolutions?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’ve never been a big one for New Year’s resolutions. The biggest changes I’ve made in my life have taken place well outside of January, and were the result of me becoming so fed up with a given way of living that I just forced myself to reform on the spot. But my checkered past is a blog for another today.
Let’s talk about New Year’s resolutions to read more. Or read better. You know, a little more Proust and Austen, a little less Clive Cussler or Candace Bushnell. Again, I don’t normally do these, but last year I promised myself that I would keep a list of every book I read in 2007, and that I would try to surpass 100 books. I did, and I did.
But what I found was that I was choosing shorter books to read sometimes, and reading too fast at other times, to make my 100 quota. And that’s not real reading. That’s the reading equivalent of those guys who eat 40 hot dogs in 5 minutes in speed-eating contests. I didn’t read everything that way, but I read more than I should have.
So for 2008, no real reading resolutions for me. I’m gonna read what I want, although I sometimes read for book reviewing for the AJC or for writing for this blog books that I wouldn’t normally be interested in. I’m gonna enjoy my reading.
How about you? Do you have any book-related resolutions?
Comments
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By Jeff
December 27, 2007 8:46 AM | Link to this
Well, I’m going to read Josh Mauney’s The Rocking Chair in 2008. Mainly because I know the guy and long ago he was one of the ones that started a chain reaction that kicked off the process of me being who I am and where I am now. I owe the guy enough to at least read his book.
Other than that though, I’m like you Phil, in that I tried a couple of years ago to do the ‘reading resolution’ thing. And I found that I just didn’t keep track throughout the year. Not to mention not coming in anywhere NEAR my goal. But the reason I didn’t even get near my goal was that I kept reading the same speed and same page volume I typically do. I didn’t pick up Redneck Dictionary III (which I LOVE btw!) and count it as one of my books. I read my typical fare of Cussler (yes, I object to your sentiments earlier. blah! :P), Brown, Alten, Sparks, Feldhahn, and Preston/Child. Of those, only Feldhahn and Sparks would come in under 200 pages, and even Sparks RARELY did that. (Notebook and Walk to Remember are the only two from him I remember being so thin.)
Of course, I also had a page number in mind when setting my goal, and I intentionally set that page number to be an average of 300 or so pages per book.
Now, as far as NON-book related, I do have a few this year, and they will probably cut into my reading time! (Drop 50lbs and 2 pant sizes. Should be able to do about half that with just dietary changes - FAR less soda, much more water! - but there will probably be a lot of excercise that comes in as well!)
By Maria
December 27, 2007 11:07 AM | Link to this
My goal is usually to finish 50 books within the year. Unless I barricade myself inside my house for the next six days and do nothing but read, I’m, uh, not going to meet that goal for 2007. But that’s okay. The 50-book goal encourages me to always be reading something, to always have a stack of a couple books from the library, and to always be on the lookout for my next book to read. I did read a good number of books this year, and I found some new favorites.
Next year I’ll shoot for the 50 again. I also want to read outside of my usual genres; mostly, I read literary, young adult, and classics, with a few memoirs thrown in for good measure. Next year I’m going to delve into science fiction (a friend already lent me a few of his favorites, and my husband has a number of SF books on our shelves), and more non-fiction.
Also, I want to submit at least twelve of my own short stories and essays for publication. And — here’s the big one — I want to reach a state of completion with my young adult novel and begin querying literary agents. Eek.
By Jen
December 27, 2007 12:10 PM | Link to this
Mine is to finish the book I am writing!
By Joyce
December 28, 2007 8:26 AM | Link to this
I have two bookish resolutions. (1)To read 52 books by Georgia authors in additions to the book buzz ones I always grab. (2)To go through my rooms of books and cull some out to donate to the library book drive.
By margaret
December 31, 2007 4:19 PM | Link to this
I revived my reading in 2007 and I want to continue that. My book club died a few months ago and I hope that doesn’t affect my output for 2008 because I really got a lot out of the year’s reading list. I want to read at least 2 books a month… I want to read whatever my friends read and then read one other book on my own… I’d like to read more of the newest books coming out. Heh, it’s depressing when you haven’t read many of the year’s most notable books…. I feel like I’ve missed out on a lot.
I want to join my local library… but I also want to keep buying books. I was a little depressed to see that OJ Simpson’s books outsold many major authors… and it was sad to see the poor sales of some wellknown writers.