This'll be short and sweet, because my MAJOR GOAL is this:
To stop worrying about always staying on top of the newest, the shiniest, the most buzzed-about books.
To stop reading what I think I SHOULD be reading, and to read what I WANT to read.
To stop beating myself up for not writing at length about everything I read, for not posting every day, for not doing MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE.
I would also like to:
Read more adult fiction. I miss it, and I've been so busy over the last couple of years that it's been super-backburnered. I'd like to read at least a chapter a day of SOMETHING originally written for the adult market, if only as a palate cleanser.
Read more backlist. An easy 99% of the pitches in my inbox are for the NEWEST, the HOTTEST, the NEXT BIG THING. I feel like I've missed a lot of stuff over the years, and so I'm giving myself license to forgo reading some of the super-new stuff in favor of focusing on some older titles.
OKAY. I CAN DO THIS.
You? Any goals for 2014?
I support these goals whole heartedly! Mainly because mine are along the same vein. It's so hard not to get swept up into all of the SHINY SHINY SHINY but it's also kind of awesome to get pulled in to a classic or something that's been secretly dwelling on your self and is packed with awesome.
Happy New Year!
Posted by: Lisa | 31 December 2013 at 11:39 AM
I'm not much a reading resolutions/goals person, but I am with you on not worrying about the newest, latest, or greatest. I do want to read more backlist.....and I want to BLOG more about it, too. Even if it's just a general "here's what I've been reading," rather than flat out reviews.
I guess my bigger goals are to be a better blogger/commenter/etc. -- because that's where I learn about a lot of things I am dying to read.
Posted by: kelly | 31 December 2013 at 12:26 PM
Yes! I want to revisit older titles and I want to TALK about them. It's really cool to find forgotten treasures AS WELL AS to see if much-lauded titles stand up to the passage of time. :)
Posted by: Leila | 31 December 2013 at 12:39 PM
I think I'm going to just copy your goals, Leila. I like them a lot! Happy New Year!
Posted by: Jen Robinson | 31 December 2013 at 06:05 PM
I think that because I read genre fiction, I managed to escape the "the newest, the shiniest, the most buzzed-about" thing, because for years and years, I learned about books years after they came out, either perusing the used bookstore shelves or from recommendations from friends.
That's both a good thing, because I can easily ignore hype, but also, in a way, a bad thing, because my brain wants to assume that anything that's being talked about isn't something I'd be interested. Plus the whole genre-reader-reverse-snobbery thing, where I look down on "popular" books the same way everyone else looked down on what I was reading.
Uh.... Did I wander off too far there?
What I'd like to do in 2014, I started to do at the end of this year, which is read more books written in a language other than English. I've read quite a few mysteries set in other places, but I'd like to find more fantasy by non-English writers. That's a but harder to find I think, but I like seeing the way folklore from a different country is worked into the story. (I adore Sergi Lukyenko's fantasy, and how the stories have a very different feel to them than what I'm used to reading.)
Posted by: Random Michelle | 31 December 2013 at 06:41 PM
I'm all about more backlist... and 2014 is The Year of the Hermit. I'm done with most committees and odd-jobs that aren't what I need to be doing. Time to read and write.
Happy New Year, chica.
Posted by: tanita | 01 January 2014 at 02:47 PM
@Jen & Tanita: Happy New Year to you, too!
@Random Michelle: I'm also feeling the translated works thing, and I was looking around for a list of 2014 titles the other day, but no dice. Have you seen one anywhere?
Posted by: Leila | 05 January 2014 at 10:46 AM