Reading Resolutions for 2017

I wasn't going to do any reading resolutions this year. When I did my blog stats and saw what I'd read, it didn't seem like my resolutions were helping. I've also been inundated with negative 'resolution' videos lately, about how they always fail.

Then I saw this post by Tobias Buckell about bullet journaling and suddenly I wanted to make resolutions again. But I didn't want to make sweeping resolutions that I couldn't achieve or that wouldn't survive contact with the real world. I wanted to make small, defined resolutions that would effect my life in concrete ways so that at the end of the year I would see actual results. I wanted little check boxes I could tick off every day to show accomplishment (I'm an 'achiever'. To me, lists and check boxes are really important and I feel somehow a failure if I don't get to tick things off in those boxes).

So my resolutions look different this year.

I started out by making a chart:

It's not all filled out here, but I did fill it all out in my notebook. 

I then made a concrete list - with check boxes - for the specific books and types of books I want to have read by the end of the year. My goal is to read 40 books, which is clearly doable. Of those, 5 will be history books (and I've picked out which ones I'm going to read). I've got spaces for 10 books published in 2017, several of which have already been filled in (these are books I desperately want to read, and some books I've requested from publishers. I may not get those books, so this list may change, but my intent here is to give myself a physical representation of what I have the physical time for. Once that column is full, I cannot accept new reading requests without bumping another book off my list (at the end of the year if my list is done, I can add a few extra titles. But I have a habit of taking on too many requests and so not getting through the books I otherwise plan to).

As with previous years, my biggest concern is clearing some backlog books. I have 10 older titles from my shelves. I'm starting with books I've bought that I haven't had time to read but really really want to. These books have been bumped off my reading pile for years. That stops this year. I've also got 5 'older titles' listed. These are from my husband's shelves and tend more towards classic SF. I've filled that list so I don't need to think about which book to pick - which can get daunting, and is part of why there are so many I haven't read (that and time - never enough time).

One of my categories is to read 5 diverse books. I'm hoping to get more than that, so it's a fluid list in terms of number. I already have two in other lists. I was having a bit of trouble coming up with possible diverse books so I went on Goodreads and looked through a few of those lists. I came up with the following:  

I'd forgotten how many great books I still want to read (many of which I own) fall under the 'diverse' umbrella. I'm trying for more 'own voices' books here. I don't think reading 5 will be a problem. Deciding which one to read first though...

I'm also planning to read 10 graphic novels and 5 magazines. I keep getting magazines and story collections in kickstarter campaigns and ebook bundles. This year I plan on reading a few of them. I'm hoping to read more than 5, but we'll see. Stories take longer to review, so I don't do as many of them.

The following pages have my yearly goals written concisely, followed by what I have to do each month and each day in order to meet my goals.

I've got more medieval posts planned. I wasn't able to do many last year, and I'm planning to do one plant and one saint post a month this year. 

I also think the key to making resolutions/goals stick is to check in once a month and see if you're on track. It's something I haven't really done before, so I want to keep myself focused this year. I also want to be flexible with my time. If I don't have time for a book, I'll throw in a graphic novel or movie for review. 

So, what resolutions have you made this year? 

Blog Stats for 2015 + Resolutions for 2016

Last year I managed to read 44 novels, 4 history books and 5 'other' (one psychology book, two graphic novels, one collection of fairy tales, and one short book on Arthurian myths).

Of the novels I read 22 were by men and 21 by women.  One book was an SF collection with mixed authors.

Going through my list I've had some trouble categorizing things, so I've categorized them here where I've linked their reviews on my review pages.

science fiction = 24
steampunk/weird west = 3
fantasy = 12
urban fantasy = 3
horror = 2

I should note that none of the urban fantasy took place in the modern day, though the books in question don't quite fit in other categories either.

I didn't do so well with the non-Western works.  I read one book by a Japanese man (All You Need is Kill), one by a South African woman (Black Dog Summer), and one by a Norwegian man (172 Hours on the Moon).

While I read several books with POC protagonists, I only managed a few by writers of colour.  So again, I could do better there.

My reading resolutions for this year are mainly to get rid of some of the backlog of books on my shelves.  I cleared out several titles last summer and fall, but there are a lot more I need to get through.  This may mean fewer reviews, as reading 50 pages of several books to see if I like them takes time that I could otherwise spend reading a review title, so I'll have to see how my timing works out.  I may start a 'your mileage may vary' series, where I mention books I've tried that for one reason or another just didn't grab my interest, so you know what I'm up to and can decide if the books are of interest to you (the reason I put down a book may be what makes you pick it up).

The down side of this, of course, is that there aren't many non-Western or POC authored books there, so I'll have to pick my other reads carefully if I want to increase those numbers.  I'm enjoying the different perspectives I get from them on SF/Fantasy and the world itself.

There were several books that came out last year that I really wanted to read and didn't have time for. I'm hoping to sneak a few of those in.

My January schedule has already been booked with reviews of books I received copies of in December or earlier.  I've only one of those left to read, after which I'll likely read a few older titles with sequels coming out soon.

So many books to read, so little time.

Speaking of time, I'll try to make a buffer of history based posts for Fridays so there are fewer gaps. While those posts are fun to do - and I learn a lot by doing them (hence why I'm doing them) - each one takes at minimum 3+ hours.  The cathedral posts take longer, mainly because I've been modifying/correcting my floor plan and sculptural program diagrams, which is very time consuming. But I'd like to finish off the French cathedrals I took pictures of last summer, do more medieval plant posts, and maybe start a feature (when I'm really pressed for time) where I simply show a picture or two from my collection (I've been to a lot of museums and medieval, etc. sites so that could be fun). I also want to get through more of my history book collection - which keeps growing.

Here's a toast to 2016, may it be a wonderful year with a lot of good books and good times.

2015 Blog Resolutions

So it's a new year again, a time for fresh starts and, well, let's be honest, doing the same old thing, because that's what we're used to doing.

I didn't get much reading done over the holidays so I'm currently catching up on some review books. I'll have those reviews up in the coming weeks, though I may not get a book a week this year the way I somehow managed for most of last year.

I did pretty well with the history reading last year, and I'm hoping to continue that this year while still reviewing a good number of new and old SFF titles.

I would like to bring back a column I tried to start... last year?, but that work and other things got in the way of called Reading Unbound.  The point of the column is to highlight authors outside the regular circles.  If I can get it up and running it's a bit time consuming so it wouldn't be a weekly thing, but I may throw it into my Friday circuit.

I've also wanted to do a series of pieces on medieval plants and what they were used for.  I've several books to research this in, but again, it would be time consuming, so I'll see if I get that going or not.

I'm going to keep doing the shout-out posts.  I like promoting things that otherwise fly under the radar.  And I really miss suggesting books to people.  It was one of the best aspects of being a bookseller.

If there's a column you love and want me to keep or if you have suggestions for my blogging, leave a comment. :)

Blog Resolutions 2014

It feels weird to be back blogging again.  I'd set up most of my December posts in advance to go automatically and, in the haze of overwork over Christmas, lost track of what went up when.  I'm still somewhat exhausted, so this week will be on the lighter side for blogging.

I managed to read several books on my commute downtown, so you can expect to see one of those each week, as usual.  I'm not sure how much this will affect the blog, but I'll be reading more history books in the coming month (making use of Toronto's library system while I still have access to it).  They're mostly medieval or related history books, so you may find a lot of non-fiction reviews in February and March as well as some Stranger Than Fiction posts about some of the things I learn.

The downside of this is that I won't be accepting any new review requests for a while, at least until my store closes.  I'll still have books received posts for anything that shows up in the mail, but I won't be asking for new books until I have time to read them again.  And, as usual, I'd like to work on the backlog of books I've been sent that I haven't had time to read.

I'm considering a new feature where I research different mythologies and post information about strange creatures I find.  I've got several mythology books, a medieval bestiary, The Encyclopedia of Things That Never Were (sadly out of print but an amazing resource if you can find it) and a dictionary of symbolism.  It feels like fantasy is stuck on a few common creatures and it's been cool seeing some authors diverge from that, particularly Max Gladstone's Two Serpents Rise, which used Mesoamerican mythology, Saladin Ahmed's Throne of the Crescent Moon, which used Arabic mythology, and Shana Mlawski's Hammer of Witches, which used a mix of Arabic and Jewish mythologies.  There are so many interesting creatures in the mythologies of the world it seems a shame that so many are ignored.

I'm looking forward to this new year.

2012 Blog Resolutions

First off, let me just mention that I was all revved up to get some of my blog backlog dealt with (prepping posts, revising reviews, contacting authors, etc.) now that my work schedule is back to normal and then I got sick.  I'm still sick.  So I may or may not post anything tomorrow.  I'm posting today because I had this post in mind for over a week to go after the post I did yesterday. 

While I'm proud of all the reading I managed to do last year, the goal of a book a week ended up being... stressful.  Most of the time I managed it, but when I got behind and a book took two or sometimes even three weeks to finish, I'd look at my TBR pile and panic.  It also meant other hobbies got pushed to the wayside.  I've got a pile of fabric that was supposed to be clothes by now, and I've spent a ton of money on crafting supplies I'd better use if I want to justify the expenses.

What does that mean?  I still intend to blog 4+ times a week, but my reviews will be posted once every two weeks or so instead of each week.  I'm also going to accept fewer review requests so I can read more of my current TBR pile, as well as all the books I've heard about the last year or more that I haven't had time to pick up.  More importantly, I want to read all the books I currently own that have patiently waited years on my shelves for me to read them. 

I'm getting rid of the Geek Gifts posts.  They turned out to be too time consuming to do on a regular basis and there are other sites which do fantastic jobs with regards to that information, better than I ever could.

In its place, I'd like to do a regular Artist Spotlight posts.  I've done a few of these, and while these can also be time consuming, I enjoy being exposed to all the talent out there.  I've still got a pile of business cards from last year's Fan Expo Canada's artist alley to start with.

There will still be 1-2 (generally 2) author interviews a months and spotlights on new authors, SF/Fantasy inspired videos from around the net, etc. So I hope you all stick around.  If you have suggestions for things you'd like to see or things I post about that you don't like mention them in the comments.

** I knew I'd forget something.  I'd also like to post more reading lists this year.  I only managed to post a few last year and I can definitely do better than that.  I've a few on the go already.  :)