GOAL #1: Read Books I Own
This is the big one. I have 400+ books on my shelves that are wasting away, unread, and I think this is a good time to focus on those books. One, it will save money, a definite plus as babies are ridiculously expensive considering how small they are. Two, I probably won't be spending near as much time heading to Barnes and Noble or aimlessly browsing online for new purchases. Three, having that many unread books is something of a sin, isn't it?Sub-Goal: Read at least 12 books from my new Classics Reading Project
I compiled a list of classics I either have on the shelves or on my nook, and I am determined to start reading my way through them. I am only committing to 12 this year for two reasons: 1) I'm thinking the new baby is going to seriously cut in to my reading time and 2) I want reading classics to be a treat, not a hassle. I would love it if you would head over to the list and let me know which books you think I should read first.
GOAL #2: Manage My Series
I have two posts coming up which will further detail this one, but in essence, I am in the middle of a crap ton of young adult, adult, and graphic series. And to top it off, I also have the first books in another crap ton of series. I have 15 YA series started, and at least the first book of another 37; 6 adult series started, 9 with the first book; and 3 graphic series started, 4 with the first book. That's right folks! I have 74 series to manage right now, already on the shelves.GOAL #3: Organize My Bookshelves
I need to get my shit together, so to speak, in more ways than one when it comes to my bookshelves. Right now, my books are spread out over 6 bookshelves in the living room, one in the dining room, one in the office, and one in the closet. While I originally had a plan of attack for all of the shelves - with books nicely separated according to genre, author, etc. - the shelves are rather disorganized now due to a strange mix of organization by genre, age, read/unread, etc. It's quite the mess.Sub-Goal: Organize my Nook
I have 110 books on my nook (probably more coming after Xmas), and they are something of a disjointed mess. I need to get them nicely archived if read and organized onto separate shelves if unread. I still haven't quite figured out how to organize them as I am not a huge fan of genre classifications. Perhaps something a bit more simple: Classics, Contemporary, YAL, and Nonfiction? And where do I draw the line between classics and contemporary?
Sub-Goal: Remove at least 100 books from my shelves
I have roughly 2000 books in my house, and I really need to cull. I probably should get rid of more like half, but as a true hoarder, I think it will be difficult enough to get rid of 150, especially since I got rid of over 350 just two years ago. Minimizing my material possessions in general is a good idea, but the books definitely top the list of over indulgence for me.
So what are your reading goals for this year?
Okay, my suggestions for the classics (jaded by the fact that I just read, or am reading, and love them) -
ReplyDelete- Sense & Sensibility (my second favorite novel ever!)
- Little Women
- Northanger Abbey (sooooo funny)
- Moby-Dick (surprisingly good!)
- Vanity Fair
- Frankenstein
- Letters To a Young Poet (deeply inspiring)
- The Mysteries of Udolpho (page turner!!!!)
- Villette (exquisite)
I also recommend War & Peace, though it might be a bit much with a brand new baby. :-)
I think that sounds like a really good solid set of goals, Trisha! Especially with the alienette coming. As for your classics, I went through the list and picked out books I've read that I thought YOU would enjoy, not necessarily ones I enjoyed myself. Though many of those, too.
ReplyDeleteNorthhanger Abbey, Lady Audley's Secret, Catch-22, Of Human Bondage, Lolita (maybe - I highly recommend Jeremy Iron's audio version, which makes it amillion times better), Saint Joan, Grapes of Wrath, Vanity Fair, Candide, The IMportance of Being Ernest, and Germinal.
I included several quite humorous books in there. I remember needing humor after having babies. :D
I think I'm the only one who favors Emma out of the Austen collection. :D
ReplyDeleteAnd seriously, when you figure out a way to track your series will you write a post (or email me?) I need to figure something out as well. I'm freakin' here. So many out there!!
Classics: Any of the Austen, Villette (marvelous!), The Woman in White (this one will suck you in), Count of Monte Cristo (long, but one of my favorite books), Mill on the Floss (AMAZING), Portrait of a Lady (my favorite read from 2011), Moby-Dick (not as scary as everyone thinks), To Kill a Mockingbird, Gulliver's Travels (so funny), House of Mirth (my favorite book. ever), and Germinal (this one is just SO GOOD).
ReplyDeleteI'm with Christina up there. If you figure out how to track series, let me know. I love a good series, but it is hard to know when a new book comes out, etc. I generally only try to read series if the entire series is published. That way, I can zip right through them one after the other and I don't have to do that whole waiting game thing. Of course there are exceptions to this, but it is a good rule of thumb. :)
New to your blog and love it! I had to quite reading several series as I just could not keep up. Now I think long and hard before I start a new one.
ReplyDeleteAs for the classics, Little Women is super fun, anything by Gaskell is amazingly readable, Wilkie Collins tells a great story and totally makes you forget you're reading a classic. Austen is my favorite (I, too, love Emma) and Wharton is a genius (loved by Age of Innocence and House of Mirth). Good luck!
You might find reading easier with the e-reader once FA comes. I personally just don't have the attention span but I've heard many new mothers say they're reading more because they can read on the ereader while holding baby.
ReplyDeleteI'm a book glutton as well. I know I need to cull my shelves but now I have this paranoia that paper books will eventually one day be less common and I'll wish that I kept mine. Even the stupid books I know I'll never read. It's a sickness. Also need to organize my shelves as I haven't done it since I moved two years ago. Thinking of doing by genre.
2012 is going to be such an exciting year for you! I can't wait for you. ;)
74 series to manage?! I think it'll take your lifetime, (or at least the next 20 years), to get through all of them! That's a lot!
ReplyDeleteI looked over your Classics Reading Project. I think you should start with To Kill a Mockingbird. After that, hit up The Grapes of Wrath or East of Eden. EoE and TKAM are two of my favorite books.
When it comes to culling your bookshelves, this is what I suggest: if you can get it from the library, get rid of it. If you know you are never going to read it, get rid of it. If there are thousands of copies out in the world of the same book and you know you can probably buy it back really cheap if you ever think of reading it, get rid of it.
Good luck on your goals. Happy New Year!
I need to organize my shelves and nook as well. Do you keep a list/spreadsheet of all your books? I am considering doing that..
ReplyDeleteI tried managing my series a few years ago, but yeah, that didn't work out so well and in the end I gave up altogether :P It seems everything is a series these days. Beat of luck to you!
ReplyDeleteRead The Count of Monte Cristo because I am. Also: Revenge. (Are you watching that? If so, the show is based on the book, so there you go. Double incentive!)
ReplyDeleteThe series are totally OUT OF CONTROL. I am actually impressed that you know how many of them you are invested in. Plus I hear of like five more a day I want to read. Totally crazy. As far as the baby goes, I think when my kids were born, I didn't read for like four or five years. Of course my kids were 20 months apart, so there was a very long stretch of pregnancy, diapers, sleepless nights, and exhaustion. I was doing good to get a shower. So don't beat yourself up if you have a hard time getting through a book. Just blog about FA instead.
ReplyDeleteThank you everyone for the suggestions for the classics to read first! I'm totally setting up a spreadsheet to track recommendations. :)
ReplyDeleteTo those who want to know how I'm tracking the series, send me an email if you really want to know, and I'll send you access to my spreadsheet. :)
Jenny - I actually do have a spreadsheet for all my books; although I think I'm really behind on my nook books for it.
Akilah - I had no idea Revenge was based off that book! I will definitely have to start reading it soon.
Amanda, Trish, and Sandy - I'm really interested to see how having a baby changes things. I can totally see how humor, ereaders, and maybe no reading at all are possibilities.
I have 70-some-odd books on my Nook and they're minimally organized. I have an "A List" shelf of contemporary books and a "Classics" shelf for classics, obviously, and a "Freebies" shelf for the free content I download in-store.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with all your goals!!! Babies do change a lot, but you'll be great. :)
It is not a sin!! (says the fellow book hoarder)
ReplyDeleteAnd Little Women and Agnes Grey have my vote. But only because they're on my list to read this year (LW will be a re-read, though).
Good luck with everything and Happy 2012!!
I've just decided to give away all the books that have been cluttering my shelves. If I haven't read them after a year....
ReplyDeleteMy new philosophy!
Here are my Reading Resolutions for 2012.
My reading goals are to MAINTAIN.
ReplyDeleteTo keep on reading NO LESS than one good book a month.
It's the only want to get better, to enjoy more, to learn more, to grow mentally and spiritually.
READ BOOKS.
I tell my children that all the time, like a crazy woman.
Want to change your life? READ A GOOD BOOK.
Love meeting you, lady, and best wishes for a fantastic 2012!!
It's really hard for me to cull books, but it's something I need to do frequently, as I just don't have the room for all of them. I'm afraid that I'll get rid of a book and end up wanting it back, and spending money to buy a new copy isn't always feasible.
ReplyDeleteI've found that what helps is this: I go through my shelves and pull books that I haven't read in awhile, or read once and doubt I'll read again. Then I put them all in a big plastic bin (with lid tightly closed to keep out dust, moisture, and bugs), and store them in my little side-porch storage room. If I don't touch the box for a few months (to fish out a book that I really want), then I know it's okay to sell them or give them away. I'd much rather they go to someone who will read them, rather than languishing on the shelf or in storage.
You've got some great goals for the new year. Hope they serve you well, and congrats again on the baby!
Great list! I have over 1000 books on Mount TBR and should really get stuck in. My shelves are nice but a total mishmash of everything (which is getting a bit unruly now), I've hit a new low of ONE classic novella this year (unbelievable for me) and I too have a bit of a series problem. I'm trying to read, say, one vampire series at a time, one dystopian series at a time, and so on, so I don't get in a muddle, but it doesn't always work out that way!
ReplyDeleteI hadn't really thought about making blog and reading goals for the year, but actually I think it would be a good idea to have something to go back to and think 'Oh yes, I wanted to do that this year...'
Some of mine might include:
1. Making an effort to bring back regular bookshop mini-posts with funny customer quotes, requests and horror stories. Also, writing more editorial bookish pieces for the blog, like I did over the summer.
2. Getting on top of my review reading by using a planner to note publication dates and tour deadlines.
3. Holding more giveaways - I tend to forget, a bit - and maybe joining my first giveaway hop.
4. Not always reaching for an easy read. I've got some wonderful classics, non-fiction and literary fiction on my shelves and love most of the ones I read, but often I'll get lazy and just pick something quicker.
5. Balancing new and backlist reads. I tend to buy books that sound amazing, then feel guilty and go back to my TBR shelves, leaving the new books to settle in and fester for five years before I actually read them.
I'm sure there'll be more yet - but thanks for getting me thinking!
Again, these goals are similar to mine: the series, my shelves, etc. This is why I don't own a Nook. It would be full of more unread books!
ReplyDeleteYikes that is a lot of series reading! I've often shied away from overt series but in looking back I find that I'm reading several books, like the Flavia de Luce books, that turn out to be a series though they aren't initially marketed that way like some SFF book series are.
ReplyDeleteNot a sin at all, says the girl with over 500 unread books in her house. My classics book club defines a classic as a book published over 25 years ago as the simple definition.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your goals! I think you'll be surprised how much you are able to read even with the Floppy Aliennette.
REVENGE IS A BOOK? By who? I love that show.
ReplyDeleteI vote for East of Eden. Great book to savor and reread. I'm planning on reading 100 Years of Solitude in February, hopefully as a group read, if you want to join us.
74 series! That's amazing. 2000 books! That's a lot. Good luck culling your stacks.
Sounds to me like someone might be nesting!! Love all the organizing stuff. That is one of my favorite things to do . And 74 series???!!! And 1000 books???? You've got a problem lady!! : )
ReplyDeleteBree - Revenge is based on The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I'm reading it now; that is some good stuff.
ReplyDeleteAkilah - thanks for letting me know. I had no idea. Must get book.
ReplyDeleteCulling will be a big project but will likely help with the shelf organization! I organized only the already read books on my Kindle, it works pretty good. Good luck with all of your goals!
ReplyDelete