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 (It depends a little on how you want to count them. 202 if you count unpublished manuscripts, 200 if you count just physical books, and less than 200 if you take out the rereads.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.

[sweet_sparrow]

So far I only know what the product description/course description tells me, as the book hasn't arrived yet, but I'm excited all the same. It's a course on wizards throughout the ages, so I'm pretty excited.

Ei! Your courses rock! We only get the super-interesting stuff (sort of) in our MAs. We're lucky to have any form of choice at all, really. The English department is just about big enough to offer all the variety of canon literature that it does.

*low whistle* You're a brave person. I'm glad I took the course because it showed me so much about writing techniques, but... I'm praying I'll pass the course and never have to touch another modernist text ever again. (And to be fair some authors I did get along with.)

[shanaqui]

Oooh, that sounds cool.

Ah, we get to choose whatever we want from what's available, and there's a pretty big range. ♥

The lecturer is amazing. And myth is amazing. Surely that will atone for the modernism?

[sweet_sparrow]

It should be pretty interesting at least. ^-^

I love the courses offered by native-English universities... I looked into enrolling as a foreign student, but I'm afraid the only way I could've afforded it was with two student loans and a job, and our government refuses to give you one if you also get one from the country you're going to, so I didn't get to go. :(

Possibly... Depends on the authors you're reading, I suppose.

[shanaqui]

I bet!

Ugh, that sucks so much. *kicks governments*

I'll have to look that up soon. Before the course starts. Still time to run away screaming. *grin*

[sweet_sparrow]

I was crushed. All I needed was that one 'yes' as answer. It's a pretty lousy trick form the government. They know perfectly well you can't afford studying abroad with just one loan and a job unless your parents' pay-scale is upper class. Heck, you can't even afford studying with a loan and a job here.

You could always try the course and see what you think in a few weeks, surely... Leastwise that's no problem here. The best class I ever had was a movie class. Pretty much every other week the teacher went "If you're sensitive/can't watch tv violence, skip these scenes". He even went "Skip this whole movie" at one point. I think it was Taxi Driver, but I'm not sure.

[shanaqui]

Our student loan companies screw a certain class of people, too, though it's not quite the same. If my parents were divorced, I'd get a higher level of support, but they're not, so because my mum earns over a certain amount, that means I just get the base amount. Which is really irritating, because my mum's money automatically goes to pay debts, and they don't have much to give me.

I've got two weeks to make a decision, I think? I'm probably going to attend most courses, in the first week or two, because we're allowed to attend ones we aren't being examined in, and there are SO MANY I want to do.

[sweet_sparrow]

Ugh. Sounds much like ours. The system is different, but the problems still exist.

Mmm. Then you can choose the ones you think are most interesting after those two weeks and stick with them? That sounds lovely... ^-^

[shanaqui]

Yep, that's pretty much how it works out. I love my university.

[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.

[sweet_sparrow]

They're both YA authors. Think 'Twilight' but with fairies instead of vampires and werewolves and a better grasp of the craft of writing, I suppose. The basic consensus online seems to be that if you've heard of the one, you've heard of the other and you either like the one or you like the other.

I've only read Song of the Lioness. I never really got along with Pierce's style (I'm a prose-snob), but I had a lot of fun with the essay. ^-^

[scifisentai]

Twilight I've heard of - impossible not to, really - but it's been a while since I read any YA authors other than Tamora Pierce so I guess I'm out of touch. ^.^

Ah, okay. :) I'm the opposite, I suppose, because I can reread those books again and again, especially when I just want light reading. I do love Alanna, though, so analysing those books must have been interesting. :)

[sweet_sparrow]

Naught wrong with that. ^-^ I'm partly fascinating purely by the basic pattern of their books. They're very similar. (Not similar enough to accuse either of plagiarism or aught, but similar enough to make a comparison seem like a fun things to do.)

I know I'd have loved her works as a child, but I only learned of her works... three years ago? Maybe four. Too long a time to learn what I don't like and why. It was pretty fun and interesting to look at them, though, I do admit that. It definitely made me look at why the story did work for me extra closely.

[scifisentai]

*nods* I'm like that with Mercedes Lackey. Came to them at around 12/13 and loved them but if I found them now I probably wouldn't enjoy them as much. I still love the world of the books but some aspects are, hm, problematic.

[sweet_sparrow]

*nods* Makes sense. I've no idea how I stand on Lackey's series. From what I understand they're quite different from the one novel(la) I read and loathed. I got a short kelpie story I'm pretty happy with out of it, though.

[scifisentai]

Hm, which one did you read? Some of her standalones don't always work for me, but I tend to be happier with her Valdemar books.

[sweet_sparrow]

The River's Gift. It's promptly put her on the (very small) list of "authors I will never, ever give a second chance" and I haven't yet heard or read anything about her works to make me rethink that. (Then again, there are no words for my hatred of that book. Kelpies are nasty creatures. They eat you when you get too near and give them half a chance. They do not go "Oh, you pulled a nail out of my hoof! You are my Twu Lub and we shall live together forEVVA and I shall never again eat anyone or anything without your prior approval, Mary Sue! I wub you so much!" *gaghissspitbristle* I want to know what folktale convinced her that was a brilliant idea. I really, really do.)