Eat, Sleep, Read: Bookish Resolutions for 2025

 

I can't decide if I should keep my resolutions manageable this year, or let this be a twelvemonth that I swing for the fences. 

Maybe a mixture of the two:

1. Read 64 books (Update: I read 60)

2. Continue with my new book group (Update: My new book group got absorbed into a bigger book group. It's lively and vibrant. Aaaand! I joined a second book group, a new one just getting started. It's growing beautifully, and it's making me read outside my comfort zone, which is enjoyable.)

3. Fiercely patronize my local bookstore Bazoo Books   (Update: YES)

and 

devotedly haunt my newest and most favorite library, James C. Kirkpatrick Library at the University of Central Missouri (Update: Check!)

4. Keep up my reading journal -- the one where I record all of my supposedly deep thinky-thoughts about what I've read daily, weekly, etc. (Update: haha. I do get lofty at the beginning of the year, don't I?  Not very thinky-thoughty at all!)

5. Bigger, better bookshelf. My whole damn home library all along one wall of the living room. (Update: Still thinking this one out.)

6. A sofa upholstered in emerald green velvet (Update: Same tattered gray sofa, thank you, cats.)

7. Less phone, more book (Update: Still a work in progress. In fact, it's the only resolution I made this year)

Resolutions Past and Passed Gas

 

Above is my resolutions list for 2023. I'm afraid that I didn't make much headway, but it is fun to see the reach and the fullness and optimism that was there for me at the beginning of the year.

Wolf Hall trilogy again: No (regretfully)

Who was? Who is? Yes

Read Canadian Literature: No

Read a Bulwer-Lytton novel: No

Only read literary biographies: No

Finish "Bronte" project: No

No Self-Help: I read How to Keep House While Drowning and loved the hell out of it.

Read PKD: No

Finally get around to Heart of Darkness: No

Finish Tess of the D'Urbervilles: YES THANK GOD and F#@k Angel Clare!

Read MacBeth: No

Read We: No

Rearrange bookshelves into Dewey Decimal Order: OMG, Past Self, don't make me laugh. No, and they're worse than ever.

Read in the car before work: Yes

Read A Girl of the Limberlost: No

Reread The Bell Jar: No

Stick to wish list: Bwahahahahahaha

Buy local: Yes

Read Icelandic Lit: No

1920s Lit: No

Finish Kopp Sisters: No. (sad face)

More science: No

Popular culture: I don't remember what I thought I meant.

2023 Reading Resolutions

 

Keep it simple. 

That's what I tell myself, but when I see a brand-new, unvarnished, pristine new year, something in me wants to get downright ornate with my resolutions. Read all the classics! Read your own shelves! Let your inner book snob take over! Don't read anything written before 1790! Don't read anything originally written in English!

I can never keep a whole list of resolutions, so maybe if I tell myself to read whimsically, I'll suddenly have a perverse need for structure.

Here are a few resolutions I'm pretty sure I can keep:

1. Read 62 books in 2023

2. Use the library.

3. Show the hometown bookstore lots of love.

4. Stay in the book group.

5. Continue posting to my beloved book blog, My Blob.

6. Oh, hell...read whimsically.

Regarding the above photo: This was the first draft of my 2023 resolutions. I thought I'd save it here, just to see...

Planet Plans

I have a strong sense of how I want to wrap up my reading year. There are a lot of half-read books on the old TBR. I'm hoping to clear the decks. I'm making plans. Drafting a list to follow. Usually, when the year is past and I sheepishly duck back in to read these plans, the inevitable question I ask myself is: What planet were you on when you made this list?  Well, Planet Plans, of course! I can fairly hear the B-52s singing as I hum and arrange my stack:

1. Finish Middlemarch (I'm about 20% in. Dorothea is still on her honeymoon. Readers are starting to meet other citizens of Middlemarch, including the new doctor, Lydgate. Finished

2. Finish the audiobook of Varina by Charles Frazier. I haven't listened to this book since June, and I fear that I've lost the thread. Must do better. Have I mentioned that it's performed by Molly Parker? I MUST do better. Molly freakin' Parker, for crying out loud. Finished

3. Finish In America by Susan Sontag. The Polish actress and her entourage are finally, finally in America. The story has properly started. Time for me to get back on the stagecoach.

4. Finish Bettyville by George Hodgman. This memoir of a man who goes back to a small town in Missouri to take care of his ageing mother hits a little close to home, so although it's not very long and beautifully written, I can't read too much at one time. It breaks my heart. Plus, I wanted to know more about other pieces George Hodgman has written, so I googled him, and...no. Just more and more heartbreak. But I will finish Bettyville. For George and for me and for Betty, his mother, and Judy, my mother and for all the thousands of sons and daughters who set up and maintain that final, shaky outpost. Finished

5. Finish Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. After a couple of fitful starts on audiobook and an Everyman's edition with insect print, I visited my library. Gleaming from the very top shelf was The Annotated Frankenstein! It's gorgeous. Sexy. Great shelf appeal. The footnotes overrun the 1818 text (mostly commenting on the changes made for the 1831 version) but it feels so right, that balance of history and horror and literature and geekishness and nerdiness and yes! October!

6. Finish Sontag, Susan Sontag's biography by Benjamin Moser. I'm 35% in.  Finished

7. Read Go Down Together by Jeff Guinn. It's about Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. I gave it as a gift to a friend a couple of years ago. My reasons were twofold: I thought that he would enjoy it, and I planned to borrow it from him after a decent interval. Two years seems decent, even decorous, somewhat formal and old-fashioned. Finished

8. Read Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell. This will be my first outing with Gladwell. I reserved his latest book at the library. I'm second on the waitlist. Finished

Overall: It's a good plan(et), a pretty good list. It'll be interesting to check back in 2020 and see what really happened.

My 2018 100-Book Resolution: A Critical Look Back

Even on my worst day, with electrodes hanging out, I'm *still* infinitely better-looking than your crazy 2018 Reading Resolution list.

What a freaking mess!

24 out of 100. Yikes.

My rationale for building such a big list seemed sound to my twelve-months-younger self. I'd have room to wander and all types of books to try. I'd read the list and thus cull my shelves.

Almost from the beginning, I knew I was in trouble with this resolution. It was not elegant; it lacked order. It's so weird it almost defies description, but I'll take a run at it: It's like a drunken Frankenstein (the monster, not Victor) wearing snowshoes and boxer shorts tap-danced it out in the middle of the sodden, muddy pasture during a heavy rainstorm.

Each time I returned to the list, I didn't feel like reading. I only felt like cringing.

And speaking of Frankenstein, why didn't I include it on the list?

Reading Resolution

 For my 2019 bookish resolution, I've decided to have fun and sharpen my focus with Unruly Reader's Book Bingo.
http://unrulyreader.com/book-bingo/book-bingo-2019/

Happy Book Year and see you in the stacks!


Update, Jan. 13:

1. Elevation - Stephen King - LGBTQ

2. Nomadland - Jessica Bruder - Life Hack

3. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman - Gen X Author

Update, Jan. 18:

4. The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah - Heroine

Update, Jan. 21:

5. If Beale Street Could Talk - James Baldwin - Place Name

My 100-Book Resolution: Midyear Check-In

If only...if only I weren't so constantly beguiled by the shiny and new books dangled above me like a mobile over a baby's crib, perhaps I would have made more progress on this resolution list.

Actually, I'm surprised that I've read or made attempts at 20 of them. Almost 21, when I finally finish the gargantuan The Letters of Sylvia Plath Vol. I. These efforts are highlighted in red.

I'm feeling ambitious once again, but to say that I'm going to hunker down and blow through this list while ignoring everything else would be foolish. Still, I'm wondering: Just how much of a dent I can put into the 100 before December 31? My bookworm blood is fairly singing.

I'll do another check-in at the end of September.

1. Caroline: Little House Revisited - Sarah Miller (fiction)

2. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (fiction)

3. Helter Skelter - Vincent Bugliosi (nonfiction)

4. Songs for the Missing - Stewart O'Nan (fiction)

5. The Cooler King - Patrick Bishop (nonfiction)I

6. Ride the Pink Horse - Dorothy B. Hughes (fiction)

7. Pachinko - Min Jin Lee (fiction)

8. Our Souls at Night - Kent Haruf (fiction)

9. The Witches - Stacy Schiff (nonfiction)

10. The Great Influenza - John M. Barry (nonfiction)

11. The Nix - Nathan Hill (fiction)

12. Unfamiliar Fishes - Sarah Vowell (nonfiction)

13. Drama - John Lithgow (nonfiction)

14. I'll Be Right There - Kyung-Sook Shin (fiction)

15. The Aquariums of Pyongyang - Kang Chol-Hwan (nonfiction)

16. Testament of Youth - Vera Brittain (nonfiction)

17. Gilligan's Wake - Tom Carson (fiction)

18. Vein of Iron - Ellen Glasgow (fiction) DNF almost right out of the gate. The writing style jarred. It seemed cloying and overly dramatic.

19. None But the Lonely Heart - Richard Llewellyn (fiction)

20. Underground - Haruki Murakami (nonfiction)

21. Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink - Elvis Costello (nonfiction)

22. Upstairs Girls - Michael Rutter (nonfiction)

23. Wishful Drinking - Carrie Fisher (nonfiction)

24. The Sellout - Paul Beatty (fiction)

25. White Trash - Nancy Isenberg (nonfiction)

26. Earth - Emile Zola (fiction)

27. From Scratch: Inside the Food Network - Allen Salkin (nonfiction)

28. A Taste for War: The Culinary History of the Blue and the Gray - William C. Davis (nonfiction)

29. M Train - Patti Smith (nonfiction)

30. Clockers - Richard Price (fiction)

31. Bust Hell Wide Open: The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest - Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr. (nonfiction)

32. Destiny of the Republic - Candice Millard (nonfiction)

33. The Devil All the Time - Donald Ray Pollock (fiction)

34. Saint Mazie - Jami Attenberg (fiction)

35. The Letter - Kathryn Hughes (fiction)

36. The Woman in Cabin 10 - Ruth Ware (fiction)

37. All the Missing Girls - Megan Miranda (fiction)

38. LaRose - Louise Erdrich (fiction)

39. The Dead Republic - Roddy Doyle (fiction)

40. Pox - Michael Willrich (nonfiction)

41. The Orchardist - Amanda Coplin (fiction)

42. Soaring with Vultures - Dan Kelly (fiction)

43. The Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry (fiction)

44. The Living - Annie Dillard (fiction)

45. The Tree of Man - Patrick White (fiction)

46. Heads in Beds - Jacob Tomsky (nonfiction)

47. Rainbow's End - James M. Cain (fiction)

48. What Happened - Hillary Rodham Clinton (nonfiction)

49. The Hard Blue Sky - Shirley Ann Grau (fiction)

50. October, 1964 - David Halberstam (nonfiction)

51. A Mother's Reckoning - Sue Klebold (nonfiction)

52. James Baldwin: A Biography - David Leeming (nonfiction)

53. West with the Night - Beryl Markham (nonfiction)

54. The Getting of Wisdom - Henry Handel Richardson (fiction)

55. The Nutmeg Tree - Margery Sharp (fiction)

56. No Sweat - Michelle Segar (nonfiction)

57. Mary Olivier: A Life - May Sinclair (fiction)

58. All the Rage - Courtney Summers (fiction)

59. The Art of Discarding - Nagisa Tatsumi (nonfiction)

60. The Warmth of Other Suns - Isabel Wilkerson (nonfiction)

61. Traveling Sprinkler - Nicholson Baker (fiction) DNF. Got halfway through this short novel and had to quit. Blather.

62. Three Many Cooks - Pam Anderson, Maggy Keet, Sharon Damelio (nonfiction)

63. The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead (fiction)

64. The Sympathizer - Viet Thanh Nguyen (fiction)

65. All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr (fiction)

66. Martin Dressler - Stephen Millhauser (fiction)

67. The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love - Oscar Hijuelos (fiction)

68. Elbow Room - James Alan McPherson (fiction)

69. The Optimist's Daughter - Eudora Welty (fiction)

70. The Confessions of Nat Turner - William Styron (fiction)

71. All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren (fiction)

72. Journey in the Dark - Martin Flavin (fiction)

73. In This Our Life - Ellen Glasgow (fiction)

74. Years of Grace - Margaret Barnes (fiction)

75. Scarlet Sister Mary - Julia Peterkin (fiction)

76. One of Ours - Willa Cather (fiction)

77. Mary Poppins - Travers (fiction)

78. 101 Dalmatians - Dodie Smith (fiction)

79. My Brilliant Career - Miles Franklin (fiction)

80. Ironweed - William Kennedy (fiction)

81. Hard Times - Studs Terkel (nonfiction)

82. The Group - Mary McCarthy (fiction)

83. Turtles All the Way Down - John Green (fiction)

84. Loving Robert Lowell - Author??? (nonfiction)

85. The Wine Lover's Daughter - Anne Fadiman (nonfiction)

86. Home - Marilynne Robinson (fiction)

87. A Storm of Swords - George R.R. Martin (fiction)

88. The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo - Amy Schumer (nonfiction)

89. Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen (nonfiction)

90. The Letters of Sylvia Plath - Sylvia Plath (nonfiction) Volumes 1 and 2!

91. The Forsyte Saga - John Galsworthy (fiction)

92. The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning - Margareta Magnusson (nonfiction)

93. Coming To My Senses - Alice Waters (nonfiction)

94. Fasting and Feasting: The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray - Adam Federman (nonfiction)

95. The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters - Laura Thompson (nonfiction)

96. Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell - David Yaffe (nonfiction) DNF. Found the book overwritten which seemed to distance the reader from the subject. I wish that JM had written her own memoir.

97. The Reporter Who Knew Too Much - Mark Shaw (nonfiction)

98. Home is Burning - Dan Marshall (nonfiction)

99. The Lost Art of Housecleaning - Jan Dougherty (nonfiction)

100. Pippi Longstocking - Astrid Lindgren (fiction)

My 100-Book Resolution

This year, instead of making resolutions about reading, I'm just going to build a list of 100 books I'd like to read. When I finish or DNF the book, I'll highlight it in red.

At the end of the year, I'll compare this list with the list I actually read.

And laugh.

In no particular order:

1. Caroline: Little House Revisited - Sarah Miller (fiction)

2. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (fiction)

3. Helter Skelter - Vincent Bugliosi (nonfiction)

4. Songs for the Missing - Stewart O'Nan (fiction)

5. The Cooler King - Patrick Bishop (nonfiction)

6. Ride the Pink Horse - Dorothy B. Hughes (fiction)

7. Pachinko - Min Jin Lee (fiction)

8. Our Souls at Night - Kent Haruf (fiction)

9. The Witches - Stacy Schiff (nonfiction)

10. The Great Influenza - John M. Barry (nonfiction)

11. The Nix - Nathan Hill (fiction)

12. Unfamiliar Fishes - Sarah Vowell (nonfiction)

13. Drama - John Lithgow (nonfiction)

14. I'll Be Right There - Kyung-Sook Shin (fiction)

15. The Aquariums of Pyongyang - Kang Chol-Hwan (nonfiction)

16. Testament of Youth - Vera Brittain (nonfiction)

17. Gilligan's Wake - Tom Carson (fiction)

18. Vein of Iron - Ellen Glasgow (fiction) DNF almost right out of the gate. The writing style jarred. It seemed cloying and overly dramatic.

19. None But the Lonely Heart - Richard Llewellyn (fiction)

20. Underground - Haruki Murakami (nonfiction)

21. Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink - Elvis Costello (nonfiction)

22. Upstairs Girls - Michael Rutter (nonfiction)

23. Wishful Drinking - Carrie Fisher (nonfiction)

24. The Sellout - Paul Beatty (fiction)

25. White Trash - Nancy Isenberg (nonfiction)

26. Earth - Emile Zola (fiction)

27. From Scratch: Inside the Food Network - Allen Salkin (nonfiction)

28. A Taste for War: The Culinary History of the Blue and the Gray - William C. Davis (nonfiction)

29. M Train - Patti Smith (nonfiction)

30. Clockers - Richard Price (fiction)

31. Bust Hell Wide Open: The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest - Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr. (nonfiction)

32. Destiny of the Republic - Candice Millard (nonfiction)

33. The Devil All the Time - Donald Ray Pollock (fiction)

34. Saint Mazie - Jami Attenberg (fiction)

35. The Letter - Kathryn Hughes (fiction)

36. The Woman in Cabin 10 - Ruth Ware (fiction)

37. All the Missing Girls - Megan Miranda (fiction)

38. LaRose - Louise Erdrich (fiction)

39. The Dead Republic - Roddy Doyle (fiction)

40. Pox - Michael Willrich (nonfiction)

41. The Orchardist - Amanda Coplin (fiction)

42. Soaring with Vultures - Dan Kelly (fiction)

43. The Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry (fiction)

44. The Living - Annie Dillard (fiction)

45. The Tree of Man - Patrick White (fiction)

46. Heads in Beds - Jacob Tomsky (nonfiction)

47. Rainbow's End - James M. Cain (fiction)

48. What Happened - Hillary Rodham Clinton (nonfiction)

49. The Hard Blue Sky - Shirley Ann Grau (fiction)

50. October, 1964 - David Halberstam (nonfiction)

51. A Mother's Reckoning - Sue Klebold (nonfiction)

52. James Baldwin: A Biography - David Leeming (nonfiction)

53. West with the Night - Beryl Markham (nonfiction)

54. The Getting of Wisdom - Henry Handel Richardson (fiction)

55. The Nutmeg Tree - Margery Sharp (fiction)

56. No Sweat - Michelle Segar (nonfiction)

57. Mary Olivier: A Life - May Sinclair (fiction)

58. All the Rage - Courtney Summers (fiction)

59. The Art of Discarding - Nagisa Tatsumi (nonfiction)

60. The Warmth of Other Suns - Isabel Wilkerson (nonfiction)

61. Traveling Sprinkler - Nicholson Baker (fiction) DNF. Got halfway through this short novel and had to quit. Blather.

62. Three Many Cooks - Pam Anderson, Maggy Keet, Sharon Damelio (nonfiction)

63. The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead (fiction)

64. The Sympathizer - Viet Thanh Nguyen (fiction)

65. All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr (fiction)

66. Martin Dressler - Stephen Millhauser (fiction)

67. The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love - Oscar Hijuelos (fiction)

68. Elbow Room - James Alan McPherson (fiction)

69. The Optimist's Daughter - Eudora Welty (fiction)

70. The Confessions of Nat Turner - William Styron (fiction)

71. All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren (fiction)

72. Journey in the Dark - Martin Flavin (fiction)

73. In This Our Life - Ellen Glasgow (fiction)

74. Years of Grace - Margaret Barnes (fiction)

75. Scarlet Sister Mary - Julia Peterkin (fiction)

76. One of Ours - Willa Cather (fiction)

77. Mary Poppins - Travers (fiction)

78. 101 Dalmatians - Dodie Smith (fiction)

79. My Brilliant Career - Miles Franklin (fiction)

80. Ironweed - William Kennedy (fiction)

81. Hard Times - Studs Terkel (nonfiction)

82. The Group - Mary McCarthy (fiction)

83. Turtles All the Way Down - John Green (fiction)

84. Loving Robert Lowell - Author??? (nonfiction)

85. The Wine Lover's Daughter - Anne Fadiman (nonfiction)

86. Home - Marilynne Robinson (fiction)

87. A Storm of Swords - George R.R. Martin (fiction)

88. The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo - Amy Schumer (nonfiction)

89. Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen (nonfiction)

90. The Letters of Sylvia Plath - Sylvia Plath (nonfiction)

91. The Forsyte Saga - John Galsworthy (fiction)

92. The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning - Margareta Magnusson (nonfiction)

93. Coming To My Senses - Alice Waters (nonfiction)

94. Fasting and Feasting: The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray - Adam Federman (nonfiction)

95. The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters - Laura Thompson (nonfiction)

96. Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell - David Yaffe (nonfiction) DNF. Found the book overwritten which seemed to distance the reader from the subject. I wish that JM had written her own memoir.

97. The Reporter Who Knew Too Much - Mark Shaw (nonfiction)

98. Home is Burning - Dan Marshall (nonfiction)

99. The Lost Art of Housecleaning - Jan Dougherty (nonfiction)

100. Pippi Longstocking - Astrid Lindgren (fiction)

An Abashed Look Back at 2017 Reading Resolutions

It's so fun to look back at my 12-months-younger self with a bemused eye. Cringeworthy, but fun:

I would like to read 55 books in 2017. 
I read 61. I won't finish #62, The Great Influenza, by John M. Barry before midnight on the 31st.

I would like to finish Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow in 2017. As of today, I'm 4% in. Well, I didn't make much progress with old George, but let's talk about that other man on the money, Grant!

I would like to read 3 Pulitzer Fiction novels.
I read zero. Aught. Naught.


I would like to continually have an audiobook on the go while I'm driving around. 
I finished several audiobooks this year, so that was a good idea. Then I discovered the Broadway Channel...

(which leads to...) 
Yes....?


I would like to listen to/read more audiobooks this year.
17! audiobooks! Zing! Boom!

I would like to watch or listen to a bunch of musicals this year. Forget Top 40, forget country. Nothing satisfies like a musical.
I found the Broadway Channel! I just sang that to myself Ethel Merman-style.

I would like to read that new Eugene O'Neill biography. 
Didn't get around to Eugene or any other playwright.

I would like to read some Korean literature. 
How could I overlook Korean literature? NOOO! I miss my former home so much. Edited to add: I actually kept this resolution! I read The Vegetarian by Han Kang.

I would like to read The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford. 
I listened to an FMF novel -- not this one -- and while it was good, it just felt like forever. I'm going to need a couple of years to recover before I set out with him again.

I would like to read Earth by Emile Zola.
I didn't get around to Zola this year. Quel dommage!

I would like to read a Stewart O'Nan novel.
I didn't read O'Nan, but I kept obsessively scanning the New Shelf at the library for a new novel by him. There's lots on his backlist that I haven't gotten to yet.


I would like the bulk of my reading to be 19th and 20th century books.
For the most part, I snuggled down with the 21st century and could not be budged. 

EDITED TO ADD:

Well shoot. I had a feeling I wasn't done yet. Two more book wishes floated to the top today while I was walking. I've heard things like that can happen.
Float, float, float your goal/Gently down the stream...

I would like to read The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy. Maybe an audiobook? 
I didn't fulfill this resolution, but still think it's a good idea.

I would like to get back to that Vincent van Gogh biography I left off reading while on the subway back in 2013 or 2014. 
I did do this! So glad I returned to this book minus my subway seat.


For my 2018 resolutions, I'm planning a big, bold move. I want to build a 100-book reading list, and let my idealistic bookworm hang out for all the world to see. Then of course I'll make fun of my starry-eyed self in the wee hours of 2019. Stay tuned.

Newly Minted, Minty Fresh 2017 Resolutions

Already January 5!  Time to resolve!

The "I would like..." format for resolutions felt pretty good last year, so I'm going with that again:


I would like to read 55 books in 2017.

I would like to finish Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow in 2017. As of today, I'm 4% in.

I would like to read 3 Pulitzer Fiction novels.

I would like to continually have an audiobook on the go while I'm driving around.

(which leads to...)

I would like to listen to/read more audiobooks this year.

I would like to watch or listen to a bunch of musicals this year. Forget Top 40, forget country. Nothing satisfies like a musical.

I would like to read that new Eugene O'Neill biography.

I would like to read some Korean literature.

I would like to read The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford.

I would like to read Earth by Emile Zola.

I would like to read a Stewart O'Nan novel.

I would like the bulk of my reading to be 19th and 20th century books.

EDITED TO ADD:

Well shoot. I had a feeling I wasn't done yet. Two more book wishes floated to the top today while I was walking. I've heard things like that can happen.

I would like to read The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy. Maybe an audiobook?

I would like to get back to that Vincent van Gogh biography I left off reading while on the subway back in 2013 or 2014.

A Look Back at Those Pesky Bibliolutions

I am amazed at how full of goodness and energy and plans I am at the beginning of the year. I'm just brimming with it. This year is no exception, but first, let's revisit that list so freshly and confidently baked at the  beginning of 2016:

I would like to read 85 books in 2016.
 I read 62.

Actually, I would like to read 99 books in 2016.
  Yeah? Well, too bad. 62.

I would like to read more audiobooks. I had a great time last summer when I went on that audiobook surge. Sunlight and walking and words in my ears. Yes, I would like that again.
  I audioed four books this year. Three out of the four were done while I was driving around. 

I would like to read Villette by Charlotte Bronte.
I tried from April to October to read this novel. I tried audiobooking and reading it on my Kindle. Either way, it was no damn good. I would like to never, never, never, never, never read Villette again. DNF and I don't care.

I would like to read Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky by Patrick Hamilton.
Read and enjoyed!

I would like to read more graphic novels.
I read 2.

I would like to complete my Pulitzer Fiction collection. Only ten to go!
I added one book, the newest, The Sympathizer to the collection.  Still ten to go.

I would like to read three novels in my Pulitzer Fiction collection.
I didn't read any Pulitzer fiction this year.

I would like to read the new Shirley Jackson biography when it's published.
I did this! I gobbled it like cake, like potato chips. I even read the end notes. All hail Shirley!

I would like to finish reading all of Stewart O'Nan's novels.
I read one, City of Secrets. Not my favorite of his novels, but still great writing.

I would like to have an even split of fiction/nonfiction. 
Not bad: 29 fiction and 33 nonfiction.

I would like to read that biography of Alexander Hamilton, then listen to the musical. Or vice-versa. Oh boy, did I complete this resolution! I went on an extreme Hamilton tear that lasted all summer and into the fall. One of the highlights of my year.

I would like to stick to the TBR Dare until April. Read my own damn books.
Ha! Maybe the second week in January. Maybe.

I would like to start the day with reading.
Sometimes reading wins. Sometimes sleep wins. Sometimes, I'm jerked into wakefulness by someone screaming: DEAR GOD, SUSAN! YOU LET THE POINSETTIA DIE!!! and I bang my head on the book(s) lying next to me.

I would like to end the day with reading.
  I'm having good luck with this.

I would like to have a certain time of day that is cordoned off from life and meant only for reading. Alas, this glittering place still exists only in my imagination.

Edited to add:  I would like to read The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles.
 Done! Enjoyed.

Okay, that's that! My newest set of yummy book resolutions are almost done and ready to come out of the oven. Can you smell something burning?

I Resolved THAT? A Look Back at 2015 Bibliolutions

1. Read 100 books this year.  84

2. Book Blackout Bingo.  Oops. Sorry, Unruly Reader!

3. Log my location with Goodreads.  Oops, again.

4. Read something by Joseph Conrad.  Joe, Joe, Joe. No, no, no.

5. Join or start a book group when I get to the USA. Didn't work out, but I'm still dreaming on it.

6. Get the NaNoWriMo Project up and going.  Finally, a bibliolution I kept! On February 20, 2015, my first and hopefully not only novel, Even If the Sky Falls Down, went up on Kindle.

7. Work on the Pulitzer shelf -- both reading and procuring. Reading, not so much, but I procured like a boss this year thanks to a nifty bookstore in Tulsa called Fine Books!

8. Better blog. Blog better. Better blog better. Always an ongoing struggle, but after almost 12 years, I'm still here!

9. TBR Double Dare. I think I kept my hands to my shelf for a record-breaking two weeks.

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!

2014: New Book Resolutions and the Secret Resolution

Here's how the deal went down on 2013's resolutions.

2014 New Book Resolutions

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

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 ordering Hyperbole and a Half.

9. Roam if you want to/ Roam around the world:  More books by non-USA authors.  37 out of 138 authors were from other countries.  Not very well armchair-traveled.

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.


*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.

Resolute, Resolving Bookworm 2013

OK.  I've thought about these bibliolutions for long enough.  Here we go:
Outcomes in red type -- 1/1/14

1. Only TBR books until April 1.  [This is the third year I've tried to complete C.B.'s TBR Dare, and here's hoping third time's the charm.]    I lasted till Feb. 9th.  11 TBRs in a row.

2. Read 126 books in 2013.   I read 137.  Shocked and pleased.

3. A Different Kind of Weight Loss:  Get the Bybeeary down to 300 books: 150 fiction, 150 nonfiction. When this post was originally written, I had 525 books.  Almost one year later, the count stands at 371.  Progress.

4. Don't buy a physical book in 2013.  [Ha, ha. How long will I be able to hold out?] I held out until Feb. 9th.  Such fortitude!

5. Finish Les Misérables.  Finished Les Mis on Jan. 13.

6. Get Old:  Read at least 25 books written before 1913.  I read 19. 

7. Listen Up: Get into audiobooks.  I listened to 3 books and enjoyed them, but can't seem to make this a regular thing.

8. Wakey, wakey:  Participate in both Readathons.  I participated, but there was just as much sleepy, sleepy as there was wakey, wakey.

9. Challenges: Canadian reading and scaling the Pulitzer shelf  These challenges seem to have gone by the wayside, but I'll get my focus back in 2014.

10. Big Blue Marble:  Read more books by non-USA authors.  The French made a strong stand, but 62% of my reads were still written by American born authors.

Talking About A Resolution

My friend Val from Faraway Hammer suggests that we "make promises not resolutions" for the upcoming year.  It's a nice idea, but a little too sweet and gentle for my sensibilities.  Also, it seems a little convoluted.  The promise should be written so that it's all soft and cuddly on the outside, but the kernel of the desired change should shine through.  Too easy to get tangled up in the dual skeins of syntax and semantics, so no promises for me.

Although I don't do a spectacular job of keeping them, I like the idea of resolutions, and I admire the other forms of the word:  Resolve, resolute.  It's thrilling to start the blank page that is January 1 and seriously, even frowningly think about what I want to accomplish.  There's a sternness that invigorates me.  I must have gotten it from some Puritan ancestor.  Of course, I'm also in favor of Lent lasting longer than 40 days.

First, I must examine my resolute state at this time last year and see how it held up:

1. Read for charity. I'll go a penny a page again. 
Almost $300 for someone.  Probably Cambodia.

2. Read for challenges:

100+ Challenge 
Yay, 112!

The Pulitzer Challenge 
I didn't neglect it, but not exactly balls to the wall, either.

The Newbery Challenge 
Ditto.

The Canadian Challenge - 4 down, 9 to go before July 1.
 Still pulling my toque down to hide my ashamed face.

The Support Your Local Library Challenge - I'll try for 20 this year.  
Only 9.

Mad Men Challenge - books from the late 50s and early 60s. 
A modest showing.  Enough to warrant an extra olive in my martini.

The TBR Dare   
LOL.  Lasted a mere 24 days before getting dazzled by the shelf of another.


Read the Book, See the Movie Challenge 
Only 5.  I wanted to do more.  Really, I did.

The Western Challenge - starts in May. 
Willa Cather and I galloped over the prairie together.  I discovered Buddies in the Saddle.  Not a bad year for this cowgirl; I'll have another helping of beans and cornbread.

3. Read internationally. 
It seems as though my passport gathered some dust on this one.

4. Participate in both the April and October 24-hour Readathons. 
Yes and Yes!!!

5. Read more books written before 1900.  
A mere 4 books. My snobbish inner bookworm is fanning herself while studiously ignoring me.

6. Read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The unsanitized version. 
I done it, as Huck would say.

7. Curtail book spending - this is going to hurt.
  I tried, but after I got the e-readers my resolve crumbled like a package of stale crackers.

8. Don't hesitate to DNF. Give it till page 49 then Zzzzzt! The Russian front! 
I still hesitated  to cast a book aside, but when I did, I was more upfront about my struggle.

PURPOSEFUL, STEELY-EYED RESOLUTIONS FOR 2012

1. Only TBR books until April 1.
2. Read 113 books in 2012
3. Read more Chunky Monkeys (500+ pages) and fewer Skinny Minnies (-100 pages)
4. Reduce the amount of books in my studio apartment (recent count: 500-600)
5. Read more internationally.  Not just English and Canadian books.  Get some exoticism going.
6. Find a new name for this blog.*
7. Participate in both Readathons.
8. Read for charity -- a penny a page.
9. More book/movie comparison/contrast posts **
10. Olden is golden (more books before 1900)

*I'm taking suggestions
** I'll get my moviehound son to hold me to this resolution.  It'll be fun.