The Terror of Knowing

I saw this tag recently over on Jenn’s blog and I’ve previously seen it done on Booktube by Heather @ Bookables but I think the original video of the tag has now been taken down? (If I’m wrong and you know the creator/link, please do let me know!) In any case, this is a super fun tag and it’s the perfect time of year to do it so I couldn’t resist joining in.

1. An author you’d like to read (that you’ve never read before).

I’d quite like to read something from Roshani Chokshi this year, specifically her January 2019 release The Gilded Wolves which sounds like everything I want/need in a book, but also her other books: The Star Touched Queen and A Crown of Wishes.

2. A book you’d like to read.

Everything from my Books You Didn’t Get to in 2018 list but specifically The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater because I’ve been putting it off and putting it off for months/years at this point. To be honest, it’s getting mildly ridiculous now because I love the series and need to know how it ends… but I also don’t want it to end, hence not reading the final book. I need to stop being silly and just read this one, maybe I can persuade myself to do so by letting myself re-read the previous three books?

3. A classic you’d like to read.

Aside from finally finishing reading War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, I would also like to read Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh because I feel like I’d probably LOVE this one and it’s a travesty I haven’t read it yet, frankly. But mostly I’d like to make a decent dent in my Classics Club list in 2019.

4. A book you’d like to re-read.

Can my answer (as always) be Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo? I’d also like to re-read a couple of classics I’ve previously read and enjoyed, namely A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

5. A book you’ve had for ages and want to read.

Do you know what book I’ve had for aaaages and yet haven’t read? Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. This was doing the rounds when it was first published and I heard SO MANY great things about it but yet I still haven’t read it. I have no excuses.

6. A big book you’d like to read.

I’d like to get through The Penguin History of the World which is a mammoth task but I figure if I make sure to read a certain chunk of it every month, I’ll definitely complete it by the end of the year. Or so I hope anyway. Wish me luck?

7. An author you’ve previously read and want to read more of.

I’ve read a bunch of Neil Gaiman (enough to know he’s one of my favourite writers) but there are still a fair few of his books and short story collections that I have left to read – more fun for me!

8. A book you got for Christmas and would like to read.

I didn’t get that many books for Christmas this year – ordinarily I buy books for myself ‘from’ my parents before Christmas and then they wrap them and give them to me on Christmas Day – because I tried to restrain my physical book buying urge. However one book I did choose was Educated by Tara Westover, a memoir I’ve been intrigued by since it was being publicised, and I can’t wait to see what the fuss is all about.

9. A series you want to read (start and finish)

There aren’t that many series that are completed that I’m interested in that I haven’t started yet, to be honest. I guess one that I think is completed is Kiersten White’s Conqueror’s series – but is it a trilogy? (It’s listed as a saga which makes me suspicious that it’s not but I don’t know!) In any case, I’ve been meaning to pick up And I Darken for the longest time so I really should make a concerted effort to finally get to this series this year since so many people seem to love it.

10. A series you want to finish (that you’ve already started)

I have two main ones for this: the aforementioned Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater and The Winner’s Trilogy by Marie Rutkoski – in both cases I only have one final book to read so I really should just get around to it asap!

11. Do you set reading goals? If so, how many books do you want to read in 2019?

Yes I do and, as usual, I want to read 52 books. I usually hover around the 70-80 mark but I don’t want to put pressure on myself so I’ll stick to 52 instead of trying for 75 or even (gasp) 100 books.

12. Any other reading goals?

Yep, you can read all about them in my 2019 Resolutions post but, in short, I want to read at least 1 classic a month, at least 1 non-fiction a month, and at least 4 books that fulfil the ‘Around the Year in 52 Books’ challenges per month. I’d also like to work on my NetGalley shelf and finish (or DNF, if they’re not my jam) any eARCs I have that I was approved for before the start of 2019. I’m also toying with starting to ‘balance the books’ a la Drinking By My Shelf in order to work on getting my physical TBR down, but that requires me to finish cataloguing my physical TBR so that goal might take a few months to actually start working on!

That’s all, folks, that was the New Year’s Resolutions Book Tag. If you’d like to join in, please consider yourself tagged by me and be sure to leave a link to your responses to the tag in the comments because I’d love to read it! 

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