RESOLUTIONS AND READING FOR 2019

New Year, New Me. New Year, New You. New Year, New....*insert something here*. We've heard them all before. We've heard all of the diet and weight loss resolutions and all of us have pretty much broken them by the end of January. Guilty! One resolution that I have managed to stick to for the past two years is a reading resolution. 

In 2017, I said to myself that I wanted to read more and finally read the Harry Potter series. That year, I read 71 and read the first five books in the Harry Potter series. Not quite the full series, but it was a start. In 2018, I set out wanting to read 90 books. I read 80. Half-way through 2018, I realised that I was sacrificing books that I really wanted to read in favour of shorter books that would keep me on track for my reading goal. In July, I lowered my Goodreads goal from 90 books to 80 and I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I still constantly checked how 'on track' I was, though.

So, what is my reading resolution and what are my goals for reading this year?

▻ READ 52 BOOKS

Fifty-two books. I want to read fifty-two books. 

Now, that is a minimum goal merely because I have a lot of long books on my bookshelves that I want to read and had subsequently set aside in 2018. With having a goal of 52 books, I won't be so concerned about being 'on track' on Goodreads. This way, I see that I have a week at least to read a book. Some books won't take that long but if I do pick up long books, I have plenty of time to read them compared to last year.

▻ BE MORE SELECTIVE ABOUT THE BOOKS THAT I BUY

I really should already be doing this, yet BookTube is an irresistible force. I get bombarded by the synopsis of so many different books that sound so intriguing that I find myself opening the Amazon app or walking into Waterstones, seeing it and before I know it, I'm in the queue to pay for it. The same goes to Amazon: it's in the basket, I'm at Checkout and boom! Confirmation email.

Inevitably, that book arrives when I'm in the middle of reading something so I put it on a bookshelf, forget about it, rediscover it and forget why I was initially excited for it in the first place. It then ends up on the 'Donate' pile. Or, it continues to sit there collecting dust. In 2019, like with my resolution to pick up books that I really want to read from my TBR, I'm determined to be more selective about the books that I add to my already burgeoning TBR.

▻ FINISH THE SERIES THAT I HAVE STARTED (AND OWN THE WHOLE THING)

I'm one of these people that start the first book in a series, then purchase the rest of the series and then forget to finish it. Book hoarder. Guilty! I always tell myself that I should continue it this month, or read it next month but never do. At the moment, I have the following complete series on my bookshelves;

- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas.
- Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.
- The Trials of Apollo by Rick Riordan (I haven't started but I have the whole series).
- The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare (same situation as with The Trials of Apollo).
- A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin (I haven't finished A Dance With Dragons).
- Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch

Yep. I have all the books in those series and haven't progressed beyond the first book in most of them or haven't even started them. That's a lot of books to be sitting unread on a bookshelf. So in 2019, I'm hoping to make a dent in all of these series. I don't know why I haven't read The Trials of Apollo because I love Rick Riordan's books.

▻ DON'T BE SO CONCERNED ABOUT READING CLASSICS

Last year I had the resolution to read more Classics. I wasn't talking about reading a lot of them, but maybe one every two months or something like that. I think I read roughly 2 classical books in 2018. I read some classics back in university and I struggled to read them and I have discovered that I still struggle to read them. My brain cannot wrap its head about the writing style in classics, especially pre-Victorian classics. It simply doesn't click with my head. Yet, I'm the girl with Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Rebecca, Anne of Green Gables, Little Women and Frankenstein in my book collection.

In 2019, I'm not going to stress myself about reading those kinds of books. So what that I like YA Fantasy books over Classics? As long as I like the books. I still hope to read more Classics but I'm not going to put pressure on myself to actually read them especially when I feel like a Literature Student when I do try to read them. Oh, look! Alliteration! Pathetic fallacy! Those red curtains are representative of the character's passion and lust for the heroine. THE CURTAINS WERE RED. GET OVER IT! See what I'm talking about? Literature student brain. Relax and simply enjoy the classics, girl.

▻ DON'T WORRY ABOUT READING DIVERSELY

So many people want to read diversely and they all are trying to make sure that they read books about or by LGBTQ+ characters and authors. They force themselves to read them so that they'll be taken seriously as readers. Also, see the above point. When I decide to read the book, I decide on the merit of the synopsis and the first paragraph, not on who it is by or what that author's orientation is. I don't want to consciously think that I'm reading this book because I have to please my followers. I'm reading this book because I want to read it, I'm reading it for MY enjoyment and not for that of anyone else.

▻ BE MORE CONSISTENT WITH MY BLOG

 

We've already established that I was awful at being consistent with my blog last year. It's made even worse by the fact that that was one of my resolutions for last year. FAIL! This year, I really want to rediscover what I loved about blogging in the first place. When I look back on my previous years, I posted what I wanted to post about. I wasn't concerned about being taken seriously as a book critic or a movie critic. I just wrote. Going forward, I'm going to concern myself less with being taken seriously as this type of blogger or that type of blogger. I'm going to be what I started out as and that was Me.

There you have it. Those are my reading resolutions for 2019. Do you have any reading resolutions this year? Do you want to read 10 books or 100? Let me know in the comments. Also, what kind of posts would you like to see or would like to see again? I could bring back 'Confessions of a Driver' or 'Confessions of a Retail Assistant' because they keep getting brand new fodder. Here's to a more consistent 2019. Sláinte.