Reading Resolutions: One of these years, I'll stick my landing.

Here's the sad, sad truth -- the dirty lowdown about the bookolutions I made for 2014.
Outcomes are in red.

2014 New Book Resolutions

1. Eyeballs to the wall:  Read 138 books in 2014.* 139

2. Powdered wigs and the like:  Read some 18th century books.  I read ONE.

3. Long arm:  Reach back before the 18th century and read some of that.  Didn't do it.  Short arm.

4. French connection:  Read more Zola and say bonjour to Balzac.  Non.

5. Do you hear what I hear?:  Get more into audiobooks.  I listened to 2 audiobooks.

6. Get it on, bang a gong:  Participate in both Readathons and the Readers of Kindle Books challenge on Goodreads.  I did both Readathons.

7. Keep your hands to your shelf:  TBR Challenge.  No books but mine till April 1.  I lasted until January 6th, when I read a book borrowed from my mom, but I tried to get back on task as often as I could.  Mixed results.

8. Hunting and gathering:  Resist the new book itch.  Yeah, right.  January 8th found me in a bookstore in the USA ordering Hyperbole and a Half.

9. Roam if you want to/ Roam around the world: More books by non-USA authors.  37 out of 139 authors were from other countries.  Not a very good example of armchair traveling.

10. Blog better:  Fewer lists, more thoughts, and more often, but don't get windy. I think I got listier and less thoughty.  Not to mention less bloggy.  Just the opposite.

11. I wish I could quit you:  Give Henry James another go.  Still trying to get the momentum to read Washington Square. Taking deep breaths, cracking knuckles...


*The Secret Resolution:  I believe that I can get to 150 books this year.  The conditions are favorable.  All signs point to yes.  TRY AGAIN LATER.


I was a little shocked when I went back and read my list.
 I resolved that?
 Really?!
Definitely a case of having too much to think that day. Or night.

Even in the face of such colossal failure, I can't give up making resolutions.
One of these years, I'll stick my landing.
Maybe 2015 will be the year...

Bybee's 2015 Reading Resolutions

1. Read 100 books this year.  I'm repatriating to the USA at the end of March after a decade in South Korea.  This event will either catapult me into the reading stratosphere or be the destruction of my identity as a reading athlete.  Best to have a modest goal and see how it all shakes out.

2. Book Bingo Blackout with Unruly Reader  This looks like fun!  The only one that worries me is the Magical Realism square.  Definitions for each category here, if this looks good to you.

3. Log my location with Goodreads.  Another challenge.  The Readers of Kindle Books group on Goodreads will be documenting where each book they read takes place.  This will dovetail nicely with Resolution #2, Book Bingo Blackout.  I hope that it will also prod me into reading more internationally.

4. Read something by Joseph Conrad.  Just writing that sentence made sweat pop out on my forehead and elsewhere.

5. Join a book group when I get to the USA OR Start a nonfiction book group when I get to the USA.  I like the idea of the second one; I've already selected titles for the first two meetings.  The Spawn fears that the nonfiction angle will bring out the literate lunatic fringe in the old hometown.

6. Get the NaNoWriMo project up and going.  I've done a rewrite, and I'm about to do a re-rewrite.  If this thing ever does see the light of day, can I count it as something I've read, or is that too meta?

7. Work on the Pulitzer shelf.  Both reading and procuring.

8. Blog better.  Better blog.  Better blog better.  Blogging about books is a fine thing, but I've been groping my way to the computer at vast intervals then letting my fingers flop all over the keyboard like dying fish.

9. The TBR Double Dog Dare - The goal is to read my own shelf for the first three months of 2015.  I need to read and release like nobody's business.

OK, I'm tired.  I want to stop resolving now.  Happy Book Year!