2010 Reading Goals

[sweet_sparrow]

Does anybody have any speficic reading goals for 2010? Big, small, if it's something you're aiming to do, it goes. Or am I just the weird one out? ^-~ (Hope the question doesn't break any rules, but it is book-related.)

I've set myself a few goals this year, though they're not particularly spectacular.

- read Corvus by Esther Woolfson
- read my coursebooks before term starts
- read more non-native English books

Not too many goals and most should be easy to accomplish, but... Well, they might not be. The last is going to be the most problematic. While I'm not a native speaker, I do read solely in English. Most of the books I have/want are, thus, by native speakers of English and I'd love to have a little more variety in my reading. Broaden my horizons and all. I'm not aiming to make a large chunk of my reading English translations, though, just to make that chunk larger than it is at the moment. ^-^

So. Anybody else have reading goals for 2010? ^-^

(Also, hi! I'm new to the community. ^-^ A really short intro of me/my tastes would be: "I read fantasy and I try to stay as far away from horror as I can. I like my night's rest. I'm trying to branch out my reading into other genres a little more. Other than that, I'm a student of English, focusing my courses on - surprise! - literature." Nice to meet you all!)

Comments

[shanaqui]

I'm aiming to beat what I managed in 2009, which was -- if I remember rightly -- 259 books.

[sweet_sparrow]

*low whistle* That's a lot of books. I managed to read about 200. (It depends a little on how you want to count them. 202 if you count unpublished manuscripts, 200 if you count just physical books, and less than 200 if you take out the rereads. I'll shut up now before I confuse myself further.)

I wish you good luck with that, though! I'm incredibly impressed with the number. I hope 2010 will be kind enough to let you pass the 300! (Which is mindbogglingly many books to me.)

[shanaqui]

I've only managed one book in 2010 so far, that I juuust finished, but I'm planning on rereading some books I read when I was younger, for my Children's Lit module, so they should add to it easily enough. *grin*

[sweet_sparrow]

That's already one more book that I've been managing. ^-~ And a children's lit module? Oh, I envy! We only get canon literature over here. Nothing wrong with that, but I'd love to study children's lit. (The closest I came is examining Tamora Pierce's work from a feminist perspective for my literary theory course. Badly, at that.)

[shanaqui]

My course is awesome. I had Children's Lit and Robin Hood, last term, among others, and next term I get Crime Fiction!

[sweet_sparrow]

I want your course.

Although to be fair, I get to read The Hobbit, Harry Potter and "Eustace the Monk" (which is a kind of proto-Robin Hood if I read it right) for next semester and last semester I got to read lots and lots of medieval texts. (Along with modernism. I do not get along with modernism.)

[shanaqui]

Eustace the Monk gets connected with Robin Hood a lot -- I think he was a similar figure that sprang up at about the same time, if I remember rightly. *grins*

And NEXT year, I get a module on King Arthur. ♥!

I'm possibly doing a course next term with my favourite lecturer, Myth & Modernism. This is the only form I will accept modernism in. I am right with you in not getting along with it.

[scifisentai]

Sorry for butting in here, but studying Tamora Pierce from a feminist perspective sounds awesome. <3 Almost makes me wish I'd studied Eng Lit at college/uni.

[sweet_sparrow]

It was pretty fun. ^-^ I wish I could write more essays on topics that truly interest me. I may, one day, write one on Holly Black/Melissa Marr purely for the fun of it too.

[scifisentai]

Holly Black/Melissa Marr I'm not familiar with, unfortunately, but yeah, I can imagine it was fun. ^.^ Out of curiosity was it the Tortall books or the Circle of Magic books you studied? Although I imagine both would have been good for studying.

[scifisentai]

I wouldn't call them goals for the year but, RL willing, there are a couple of books I've repeatedly started but never finished that I'd like to actually read all the way through.

And actually reading some of the history books on my shelves instead of just leaving them there to gather dust would be good. I did buy them for a reason. >.>

I also don't read much from non-English speakers - which, yes, I would like to correct at some point - but I have found Haruki Murakami to be a good read, if you don't mind stories that verge on/fall straight into the surreal. :)

[sweet_sparrow]

Oh, please don't remind me. I've bought some books my university didn't have for an essay that never got written that I really should read at some point. What're the history books about, if you don't mind my asking? ^-^ *curious, yes*

Thanks for the recommendation! I see his books around a lot, in English, which makes me wary to try them. My track record with "Books people like enough that my train station bookstores sell them. In English." is very poor. I may have to see whether he's popular enough that the library has them and steal mum's card at some point, though. ^-^

[scifisentai]

*grins ruefully* I even bought more today. I always intend to read them, then something happens and I end up not reading/finishing.

Hm, maybe try one of the short story collectecions then, if you're not sure you'll like them? There are at least a couple of those that I know of. Assuming your library stocks them, of course. ^.^

[sweet_sparrow]

Oh, dear. Sounds familiar. (I do, fully, plan to read the non-fiction books I got last, though. But for the non-fiction section of the Once Upon a Time challenge come spring.)

Mmm. I'll see what the library has. ^-^ It probably won't have the short stories, but you never know... It's a weird library in terms of what it stocks.

[scifisentai]

It's a bad habit. ^.^ One I should probably try to kick, RL permitting.

Or whether it got lent out and never came back. >.< My library has that problem sometimes and it's always frustrating.

[sweet_sparrow]

The buying or the not finishing. ^-~ I've had to put myself on a book acquiring ban. It got so bad I was buying something like ten books for every one I finished. ><

Nggnn.. I don't know if we've had that problem here. They only get the bestselling English novels. It's just a small-town library with a limited budget, so I understand, but it makes me sad all the same. And... I'll spare you the lament over the sorry state of it. I miss my library how it was.

[falena]

My goal for the new year is to read more in French - French is my third language and I've been neglecting it, lately.


While I'm not a native speaker, I do read solely in English. Most of the books I have/want are, thus, by native speakers of English and I'd love to have a little more variety in my reading.

I totally understand where you're coming from. I'm a non-native speaker as well and I read mainly in English. I realise that by making this choice I'm cutting myself off from a large chunk of reading, for no good reason at all.


This is partly why I decided to make an effort to read more in French (and also in my mother tongue, Italian).

Btw, 50books_poc has helped me broaden my horizons so much. I highly recommend it.

[sweet_sparrow]

Good luck! ^-^ I've read appallingly little French fiction, but I do, one day, aim to read Les Miserables, which I've probably misspelled. (Not in French, mind you. My French is pretty limited to saying I don't speak it.)

One of the things I'm trying to do is read some Dutch book in translation. (I hate reading in Dutch, so I try to avoid it whenever possible.) Beyond that... anything from a non-native speaker of English is welcome. ^-^ So thanks for the community recommendation! ^-^ (I already recognise several of the authors mentioned, which makes me happy. ^-^)

[finch]

I'm hoping to get an ereader in the next few months and I'm hoping that'll do great things for my productivity, but I don't have a numerical goal as such this year.

[shanaqui]

Which ereader are you looking at getting? I got my Sony Pocket Reader a couple of months ago and I am so in love with it. ♥

[finch]

The Pocket Reader is the one I have my eye on, actually. I've looked at the 505 and the Nook, but aside from the number of books I can carry, the Pocket does everything I want in the form factor I'm after.

[shanaqui]

I did a review of mine here, if you wanted to look at something a current user of the Sony Pocket Reader thinks.

[finch]

Thanks, that does help.

[archersangel]

i thought about making a post like this.

no specific goals beyond keeping track of what i read. just to see how much i do read. and someone on a livejournal book comunity mentioned reading books set in countries other than the u.s., and i thought i'd keep track of those as well

[sweet_sparrow]

Matching icon-quotes!

Oooh, that's a fun thing as well. ^-^ One of my friends mentions all the places she's visited in books at the end of the month. It's always interesting to read. ^-^