I wondered as I was writing this post what the point of it was. After all I’ve make a resolutions posts before and it has not gone well. But as the whole purpose of this blog when I started it a few years back was to try and make myself accountable for bringing the to-read pile down and that’s failed singularly so far (as seen in my state of the pile post the other day), who am I to baulk at writing posts about things I suck at. So, what am I going to try and do in 2017?
Well 2016 was the first year that I have read less than the previous year, since I started using Goodreads religiously to track what I read. And I think that’s a good thing. 2015’s 365 books was a monster total – despite having said at the start of that year try to be less focused on stats. I purposely didn’t set any resolutions last year – except to try and keep the previous year’s resolutions better. And I nearly did that this year – only 1 month where I didn’t read a library book, and 1 where I hadn’t even started a non-fiction book.
So this year, I’m going for a renewed focus on quality reading, and enjoying my reading. I want to read more current affairs writing – I’ve just taken out a trial subscription to the New Yorker because I find myself reading a lot of their stuff online, I already have a Vanity Fair subscription and I’m midway through a Wall Street Journal trial and I want to make the most of them and – in the case of the trials – work out if they’re value for money without thinking “I should be reading a book now” which I’ve found myself doing a few times this year.
But, as I mentioned at the top, the whole point of this blog is for me to conquer the to-read pile. So I need to be better at not buying a couple of books every time I go into Tesco, and not spending my nightshifts impulse buying second-hand books. Better at reading what I have – and just picking up something, anything off the bookshelf instead of staring at it thinking “I don’t fancy any of these”. Pick up a book, try it and if I don’t like it, give up.
Lofty ambitions. Will they come to pass? Who knows.
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 