Thursday, January 03, 2013

Purposeful, Steely-Eyed Resolve With A Sheepish Grin: Looking Back At 2012's Resolutions




Whoops, I did it again.  Broken and bent resolutions.  Let's review:


PURPOSEFUL, STEELY-EYED RESOLUTIONS FOR 2012

1. Only TBR books until April 1.
I made it to March 17, then the things I'd ordered from Amazon to read after the TBR Double Dare came flooding into my mailbox.  I'm not made of stone, you know.

2. Read 113 books in 2012
I read 125.  Still puzzling over how I accomplished this feat. 

3. Read more Chunky Monkeys (500+ pages) and fewer Skinny Minnies (-100 pages)
I read 9 Chunky Monkeys and 7 Skinny Minnies this year.

4. Reduce the amount of books in my studio apartment (recent count: 500-600)
I culled the herd in February and thought that I had it down around 300.  I guess I thought wrong because the most recent count is 525.  This is troublesome news because I'm moving again this year.

5. Read more internationally.  Not just English and Canadian books.  Get some exoticism going.
90/125 were authors born in the United States.  14 were English.  6 were Canadian.  'Exotic' barely made a blip.

6. Find a new name for this blog.
'Blue-Hearted Bookworm' might not be as interesting, but I get a lot less spam.

7. Participate in both Readathons.
April, check.  October, check.

8. Read for charity -- a penny a page.
36,019 pages = a lot of pennies!

9. More book/movie comparison/contrast posts.
I'm ashamed to admit that I completely forgot this resolution.  It vaporized before I could break it.

10. Olden is golden (more books before 1900)
How did I end up reading only 2 pre-1900 books?  In my defense, I must argue that the hugely enjoyable Circles In A Forest by South African author Dalene Matthee is a 19th century novel in disguise.

Anyway --  kept a few, broke a few.  Time to make more!  Stay tuned.

8 comments:

Sam said...

Those were all rather ambitious goals, Susan, and you did very well on them for the most part. You, in fact, inspired me to go penny a page for charity in 2012 and I just wrote a check for $400 to one of my favorite charities. Thank you for the idea...and I'm doing it again in 2013 (almost three bucks in the kitty already). :-)

Anonymous said...

I think you kicked ass. I failed miserably, which means no resolutions for me this year! I am the queen of avoidance!

Kathleen said...

I like the idea of reading pre-1900 books. I'll have to check out my shelves and see if I have anything from my parents' library.

Carrie K said...

I like the new name of your blog but the search history for you is going to be a lot less interesting!

I managed to read the fewest books ever this year.

Beth said...

I read you through my RSS reader (which explains why I rarely comment), so I think you will always be Naked Without Books to me. I admire how well you did on your resolutions, though.

Vasilly said...

You did great with your 2012 resolutions! I failed so many of mine because I forgot them! ;-) Happy New Year.

Eva said...

Your post made me giggle! Love your new name. :) Also, why doesn't my library have Circles in a Forest? *pout*

Care said...

I read 4 books pub'd prior to 1900! I am so proud of myself. And 3 of them are on the 1001 Books to Read Before I Die. of course. :)

I did horrible on book to movie posts. I rarely got to the movies this past year.