The Terror of Knowing

Well 2014 has come and gone – where the hell has it gone? seriously, I want a do-over – and though now might be the time for reflection, it is also the time to look onwards and maybe upwards. The cynic in me cannot allow me to be as optimistic and peppy about the dawn of a new year (it’s just time passing, guys, it’s just 23:59 flicking over to 00:00, it’s happened so many times before), I’m still going to whack out some book-related resolutions for 2015. Brought to you by foolhardy optimism and too-much-chocolate-consumed-in-the-past-week, here is my handily numbered 2015 bookish goals:

1. Stay on top of required reading. Do NOT procrastinate by binge reading things such as the Anna and the French Kiss series and then find yourself unhealthily crying your way through reading some Renaissance play at 11pm the night before class. DO NOT.
2. Write TBRs that are actually manageable, realistic, and appealing. Try to be mindful about each of these things
3. Write a review, even just a sentence or two, no matter how incoherent/flaily, for every single book/play/poem I read this year. Bonus points if it’s coherent, bonus points if it’s a video or in a wrap-up post, but at the very least on Goodreads.
4. Give everything I read some kind of rating, whether that’s in number of stars out of 5, out of 10 (with ridiculous .25 and .75 options when I just can’t settle between 3.5 and 4 out of 5). If possible, do this as soon as possible after reading.
5. Make blog posts/videos more regularly. And tied into this…
6. Have more structure to the blog posts/videos. Along with TBRs, monthly wrap-ups, try to organise sections better i.e. in lieu of reading (life, general chatter posts), monthly favourites, bookish discussions etc. etc.
7. Be more mindful of what I am reading – quality over quantity here because 5 shitty quality YA books is not better than 1 well-written novel, despite what my Goodreads Challenge might think. To structure this goal I’m going to use the likes of Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge and this 2015 Reading Challenge.

I have a few more very specific goals essentially centred on finally getting through particular texts which I didn’t finish and you’ll notice a theme with these – they’re all ridiculously long and difficult:

• Actually read Spenser’s Faerie Queene all the way through instead of just enough to pass a class
• Revisit Milton’s Paradise Lost which received the same treatment as above in second year
• Um maybe read Hugo’s Les Misérables – though let’s keep that one quiet because I wrote my dissertation on it and completely read it cover to cover *cough*
• Finish Anna Karenina – I actually really enjoyed what I did read and it broke my heart a little to move it to my ‘started but didn’t finish’ shelf on Goodreads. Let’s see if I can change that in 2015!
• Tackle as many Dickens’ novels as is possible. I have the complete set now, all pretty in Vintage editions, I have no excuse.

Like I said, these bookish goals/resolutions/promises-sure-to-be-broken are more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules (I couldn’t resist that reference) but I hope to help structure more thoughtful reading through these guidelines. Most importantly, in 2015, I want to shape my reading practices to include books that I really want to be reading/writing about rather than just trying to keep on top of the mountain of booktube recommended reads which have been stellar reads but shouldn’t completely rule my to-read lists quite as much they do!

What are your ‘resolutions’ for the upcoming year? Do you like to make New Years’ Resolutions in general or do you find them more of a hindrance than a help? Let me know in the comments below!