Reading Resolutions for 2018
AAR staff have been making plans to be their best reading selves in 2018. Here are some of our reading resolutions:
Caroline: My resolution is to reread books that have been on my keeper shelf without a reread for four years (that’s the easiest time for me to calculate since it’s when I moved). I find a lot of books I’ve had for that long aren’t holding up, and I need to get rid of them to free up space. I also resolve to get rid of my pile of Regency Christmas anthologies that I’m keeping just for the one Carla Kelly story and replace it with the Kelly collection that has all of those stories in it.
Keira: I resolve to continue my detailed Spreadsheet of Joy, wherein I maintain all kinds of data about every book I read. I have been spreadsheeting my reading since 2013, and I also blog about an in-depth analysis of that data every year. I will continue to catalog all the new books I buy or receive as ARCs or gifts at Library Thing, where I was an early adopter and am a life member. I will write a brief review of every book I read on my blog Cogitations & Meditations.
I have become rather choosy as to which books I keep, after taking a hard look at my shelves last summer and donating nine (!!) boxes to my public library. Hundreds upon hundreds of books still remain on my shelves. My home library houses all the nonfiction. The study upstairs houses all the adult fiction and children’s books. I can’t bear to cull the nonfiction, since many of them have been collected with care from around the world. I need to be more ruthless in culling my fiction, especially the books that I haven’t read in years, and buying less. I spent $170 on books last year, and I hope to spend less this year and read more from my TBR and the public library.
Maggie: Last year I determined to read books on my massive paperback/hardback to be read pile and I read about forty titles from the stack. It felt fabulous to take those books into the UBS and bid them adieu. My goal for 2018 is to continue to do that and also to slowly purchase all my old favorites that I have in paper in e. I love paper books but storage wise keeping all these old paper/hardback books just isn’t feasible.
Caz: I don’t do resolutions really, mostly because I never end up keeping any of them. The last few years, though, I’ve said to myself that I’m going to pick up fewer books to review and read more just for pleasure… and each year I seem to have picked up just as many – if not more – books to review. Fortunately, a good proportion of those are books I would want to read anyway, but that still leaves me with a number of authors whose backlists I want to explore that are still languishing lower down the TBR.
Anne Marble: This might be sacrilegious, but I was thinking of resolving to buy fewer books. Then again, I realized you never know which book is going to turn out out to be one of your favorites. So instead I should resolve to buy less … stuff. Fewer Blu-Rays until I catch up. Fewer cute plastic pop culture doohickeys and doodads. They add up after a while. And worst of all, I can’t read them!
In 2017, I started boxing lots of mass market paperbacks to donate to charities. I reduced my romance paperbacks to a couple of bookshelves, and reduced most of my other genre fiction categories . This year, I resolve to keep it going. I’ll even reduce my science fiction collection. Sniffle.
Melanie: I really want to work my way through my TBR pile. I was looking at my Kindle app on my phone last night, and I have at least sixty or so books downloaded that I haven’t read yet, and that’s just a tiny portion of my to-reads!
Kristen: I usually do a #s challenge to myself, but that has led to me picking up shorter books in order to fulfill a quota and leaving things over 300pp on the shelf. So, this year, I’ve picked two concrete goals and then whatever else happens is gravy. One: read one presidential biography each quarter Two: read my Book of the Month book in the month I get it.
And of course there’s our rebellious publisher, whose goal is to read LESS!
Dabney: My goal is to read less and watch more TV. We are living in this time of incredible programming and I manage to see only a few hours of TV a week. I’ve always preferred reading to TV but these days, I feel I spend too much time on the former. Poldark, Outlander, The Queen, Victoria, Luther – I want to watch these shows but have realized it’s not going to happen unless I put down my Kindle and pick up the remote.
So that’s us… What about you? How will you make 2018 a great year for reading (or not), or owning books (or not)?
My resolution is to continue diversifying my romance reading! By doing so this past year, I found so many new-to-me authors. As Blackjack mentioned, being active on Goodreads was one way I found new authors. Also being active on Twitter with other romance readers and bloggers.
I also want to start reading some more non-romance. This past year it was very uneven, so lots of books that weren’t romance fell by the wayside, and I read some mediocre romance when I could’ve been reading other things. I’ve greatly enjoyed delving back into YA as there are a lot of exciting books being published in the genre.
Oops whan I said local bookstore, I meant local library!
I would love to keep buying paper books (and I do…) but I’m realizing it’s getting to a complicated situation as I no longer have physical room at home to place them. I just hate picking books to put in a box… I can totally see myself giving away some titles to my local bookstore but others it would feel like giving up on a friend.
I guess my resolution would be to read more from the library but since I don’t live in an english speaking country, the fiction books aren’t as wide ranged as my tastes are currently which means I still need to buy what I want to read or find deals.
Maybe I should aim to win the lottery?
Somehow I read twice as many books from new-to-me authors last year than any previous year. Being much more active on Goodreads is likely one reason but definitely exposure to more reviews and word of mouth helps make me more aware of authors with buzz. As a result I now have half a dozen new authors to follow.
Last year for my reading resolution, I decided to buy a book only if I was absolutely committed to reading it immediately. That ended up saving me lots of money and solving my tendency to spend too much money on books that languish on my shelves.
I continue to prefer paperback books over e-books too and hope to read more in this format this upcoming year.
I overwhelmingly read print as well over e-.
Keira’s mention of her book spreadsheet actually revitalized mine! I used to track books read and ratings in Excel, but lost that file a few years ago. I’ve restarted tracking book (basing my columns on Keira’s and adding a few of my own) just a few days ago in Google Spreadsheets and backlogged all of my 2017 reads. I feel rather accomplished ;) Plus now I can easily participate in the annual AAR poll!
Kit, I’m totally impressed you went back and logged all of your 20017 reading. What columns have you decided upon for your 2018 spreadsheet?
I have these: title, author, rating, tags, publisher, year published, number of pages, format, whether I own it, price if I bought it, re-read or not, recommended by, where I am reviewing it, and comment.
It wasn’t that hard as nearly everything I buy is through Amazon and my library ebooks also show up there. I was a little foggy when it came to rating some of the less memorable/exciting reads though…
I’m so glad you share your list though, because it helped me figure out what I wanted to track and it made it seem like such an achievable project!
I used most of your columns except number of pages, review site, and recommender. I added a column for Series because once I find an author I like I tend to pick through a large amount of her backlist and this adds a little extra bit of order for me. I think my tags column needs a little refinement (I might separate it into genre and then time period). Also instead of planning my reading, I just added a separate tab for books I’ve heard of and plan to read when I get my hands on them (upcoming releases and also books my library doesn’t have yet).
Wow–anytime you want to come work for us, just let me know!
Maybe someday!
I made a mid-year resolution last year to only spend money on a book if I was pretty sure it would be good (i.e. known-to-me author or well-reviewed book, not just because it was cheap or fit the subgenre I felt like reading at that moment). Experimentation was now for freebies only. That worked out really well; I only bought four kindle books in the second half of the year, made much better use of my (excellent) local library and never ran out of good things to read.
I also decided to choose books based on writing quality rather than genre. No more buying romance books because they include my favourite tropes even though the kindle sample showcases slightly clunky writing. From now on, if the author can’t write I don’t care how much plot or character catnip the book promises. As a result, I tried more new authors and read more mysteries (especially old, out of copyright pioneering stuff free on gutenberg.org), comedy and non-fiction. I want to savour the romances I read because they deserve their place among the well-written books that are worth my time, not slog through a lot of mediocre slush because it happens to belong to my favourite genre.
Happy New Year indeed.
I’m new to the HR realm and my resolution for 2018 is to check a bunch of new authors for me. And the list seems to be endless: Courtney Milan, Miranda Neville, Suzanne Enoch, Kerrigan Byrne, Michelle Willingham, K. C. Bateman, Vanessa Kelly, Eloisa James, Kelly Bowen, Joanna Bourne, Anna Campbell, Darcy Burke, Julie Anne Long, Mary Jo Putney, Shana Galen, Katharine Ashe, Gaelen Foley, Valerie Bowman, Victoria Alexander, Maya Rodale, Louise Allen, Liz Carlyle, Jo Goodman, Emily Larkin, Jennifer Ashley… So, if I end up reading one from each I’d be happy (though I’m a bit startled on how big this list seems to be, and I’m sure I left some out).
My biggest problem is choosing which one to start with. I try to start with one that good reviews, since that will keep me reading the author; otherwise I might (sometimes unwisely) drop the author. (For instance, my first Balogh was Only Enchanting, though its far from my favourite now; the same for Tessa Dare’s A Week to be Wicked; the first Quinn was The Viscount Who Loved Me and it remains, for me, one of her best)
(Very selfishly) I’m wondering if for a Writing Resolution from the AAR staff, I could suggest a list of your favorite HR authors and the chosen book that will hook any reader (not necessarily the first on a series).
We’d love you to write it! We’d publish it as a guest post!
I see that my big plot to entice you (AAR) to do it has backfired. Hm.
But you have such great ideas….. ;)
Cecilia Grant!
Oy. Don’t kill me, but I read Cecilia Grant’s A Lady Awakened, since it has stellar reviews (including an A- at AAR; plus I really liked the blurb), and was kind of disappointed. Maybe I should try another novel from Ms Grant.
Oy. Don’t kill me, but I read Cecilia Grant’s A Lady Awakened, since it has stellar reviews (including an A- at AAR (plus I really liked the blurb), and I was kind of disappointed. Maybe I should try another novel from Ms Grant.
I feel the same way as you! I also read this book based on the AAR reviews (Caz and Dabney’s books tend to line up well with my preferences) and was slightly disappointed. I put it down and much later, I came upon the sorta prequel novella, enjoyed it, and was spurred into rereading A Lady Awakened. I did find it improved upon rereading, but still wouldn’t rate it as highly. I’m attempting to read the next in the series now.
That one didn’t do much for me.
Well, I could give you a list – but it might be a bit big for a comment here!
Interestingly, Viscount was my first Julia Quinn as well, and I still have a soft spot for it. A Week to be WIcked is, IMO, Tessa Dare’s best book and she has yet to top it.
I’d also push Valerie Bowman towards the bottom of your list (hopefully so far she falls off the end!) – not good, IMO.
I’d be happy to make suggestions if you tell me the sort of thing you are looking for – another thing to do would be to check out our Special Title Listings, which lists books by plotline and trope. We haven’t been able to update some of them in a while, but it might be a good starting point.
You can email me at caz963@hotmail.co.uk should you feel so inclined.
Thanks for your kind offer, Caz. I might indeed contact you, especially since I have been following (attentively, I might add) your reviews and I tend to like your A to B reviewed books a lot*. Oh, and much of my choices so far have been made with the consultation of AAR reviews + Special Title Listings + Top 100. (I tend to approach new readings in a very scientific way.)
And—Valerie Bowman out of the GO square! All others: maintain your position.
*Exception to the above mentioned Cecilia Grant novel, alas. Reviewed by Dabney at AAR with A- and with 5 stars in GR by you. I’m quite puzzled by this—maybe it was a strange week for me and I should try it again in the future.
My love for that book had so much to do with the way it beautifully and realistically showcased the female gaze on sex. I found it feminist in a holistic way and that gladdened my heart.
And now I feel like my feminist card might be revoked.
I don’t know that the female gaze thing is so important to everyone. But as someone who got sucked into watching Game of Thrones the same year Grant’s book came out, her viewpoint seemed like a paradise.
Now, on the good side, during this last season of GoT the ladies ruled big time. (Which may mean they all die next season, but still…)
Anyway, tv *in general* is much more progressive regarding females POV (and characterisation) than movies. These, comparing, seem to be decades behind.
Judith Ivory’s Untie My Heart!
My TBR list (that I keep in Calibre) grows by the minute. Thanks for the suggestion.
I second the Judith Ivory.
Happy New Year’s, everyone!
No reading goals for me. Like Caz, I know I’ll break them. I’m a moody reader, which means I bounce around a lot. I do intend to buy less, read more from Mt. TBR, and catch up on some series books (which also means doing some re-reads because my memory sucks). I read roughly 250 books in 2017, and every year I say I am going to read less because I need to pay more attention to other stuff going on in my life. I read at a moderate pace, so if I go over 100 books in a year, that means I’m cutting out other things to read my books. I hope for better balance this year.