My 2023 reading plans!!

Happy New Year fellow Book Dragons!!  Here’s to another year filled with more books than we can cope with, and new favourites appearing on our shelves!!

So I do this every year to try and give myself a bit more focus! And I always start off with the best intentions and then by about mid January I’ve normally gone off the rails! So it’s fun while it lasts and we will see how we get on this time round…….

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1.  Book Reading Target

Every year I set myself the target of 200 books to be read in the year, and I’ll be sticking with that again this year!  

2.  Read more Classics

I got a 12 day book advent calendar for 2022 Xmas and it was wonderful opening up some lovely editions of Classics, and hopefully I can settle down with those over the course of the next 12 months – 1 a month! – and not be too scared of them as I often am!

3.  Less Netgalley

Yep I’m laughing too!! Every year I say I’m going to get the NG shelves under control, and then I fail miserably by requesting way too many! So this year I’m going to be more ‘selective’… no really! I am!!!

4.  Buy less books

We know how this one goes don’t we?!!! Shelves are full of books still to be read, and I had a blast in the Waterstones sale with book vouchers I received, so it NEEDS to be more restrained over the next year!  I give myself a month before it goes tits up!

5.  read more non fiction

 I don’t tend to buy that much non fiction, but when I do I really love them!  I also find reading non fiction a little tougher on my poor old brain! But this year I’m going to find topics I love – nature, history, wildlife – and hopefully lap them up!!

6.  Let go……

Why do I keep hold of so many books?! I had a big sort out of my shelves the other weekend so they’re all a bit more organised but still find myself hanging on to books that have gathered dust over the years and STILL haven’t been read!  While it’s wonderful having bookshelves full of books, it’s just a question of space, and unless I win the lottery and buy a castle I just can’t keep storing them all!! So time to let go of those books I’m never going to read or re-read!!

7.  Read a page a day….

Sounds simple enough!  There are some days where I don’t feel like reading though but I’m going to promise myself to at least read 1 page a day, as that normally leads on to a chapter… or maybe more!

8.  Simplify….

I do like keeping a note of what I’ve read in a physical diary, and also make notes in a little review notebook  – I just need to stop using so many notebooks and then forgetting where I’ve put them!! Time to stick them all in one book and hopefully that will be easier to keep track of! Famous last words!!

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So we shall see how we get on with this little lot!  Are you giving yourself some reading goals for the year ahead?! Good luck!!

HAPPY READING!

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My Bookish Resolutions for 2020!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Thought I’d start the year with some bookish related resolutions! I normally don’t do very well with any resolutions I set, but it’s fun to make a list so who knows, maybe some of these will stick with me for a while this year!! A girl can dream……

1. BUY LESS BOOKS

I know you’re all laughing right now!! So am I to be honest!! But the book buying is a little out of control so needs to be reigned in and controlled!! So if you can all do your best to stop recommending such wonderful books to me then that would help and maybe I can be cured of wanting to buy ALL THE BOOKS, ALL THE TIME!!

2.  READ MORE BOOKS

Obviously! Seems a little strange after reading over 200 books last year, but I am prone to procrastination when  I could be fitting in a couple more chapters, so my aim is to get offline more and fit in a bit of reading instead of browsing various pointless websites!

3.  ORGANISE BOOKSHELVES

My current bookshelves status is ‘if there’s a gap, then that’s where a book goes’! Not so helpful when you’re looking for a particular book and there’s a mix of read and unread books altogether! So in 2020 I’m aiming to have a little more organisation going on! Not sure I can go the full hog and go alphabetical – all the different sized shape books side by side would freak me out – but there must be a way of making my life a little easier when I need to find a certain book!

4.  LESS BLOG TOURS

I LOVE blog tours!! I’ve been introduced to so many wonderful books via them over the years BUT it all just became a little like ‘homework’ for me at times during 2019 – all my own fault for signing up for so many!! – so I’m hoping 2020 I can be a little more restrained and just do a few so that I can read more books from my own shelves as I find Blog Tour books just take precedent over books I own.

5.  NETGALLEY……….

Hello, my name is Karen and I have a Netgalley addiction!! They just make it too easy!! So this year I WILL try and work my way through the backlog of books on my Netgalley shelves (currently at 3 figures…. I’m saying no more!! but still with a 70% ratio) and avoid the temptation to keep clicking when newbies get released!

6. E-BOOKS

I very rarely buy e-books but have seemed to have built up a collection over the years – probably freebies and 99p books – that I download and then instantly forget about as they’re on the Kindle and I can’t SEE them!! So no more! I need to go through my Kindle and sort them all out and devise a way of reminding myself about their existence!

7.  DECLUTTER MY BOOK COLLECTION

aarrrrggghhhhhh!! I’ve come out in a cold sweat just typing those words!  But there is no more room!! And I already have piles of books sitting on top of drawers or on the floor as they’ve got no shelf space!  I do already go through and donate an awful lot of books to various charity shops, but I need to stop being so ‘precious’ about all the books I read and am (probably!) very unlikely to ever read again! They need to go off and find new homes with new people to appreciate them! I must learn to  LET THEM GO!!

8.  READ MORE NON FICTION

Every November I pile up the books and thoroughly enjoy going through a wide variety of subjects for non fiction November, and every year I say I’m going to read more and never do!! That’s going to change…..

9. READ MORE BIG BOOKS

Having read DUCKS, NEWBURYPORT (1,000 pages)  in 2019, I have learned not to be so scared of those big chunkster books that are sitting on my shelves taking up the space of 2 or 3 normal sized books!  But they’re still sitting there – mainly fantasy titles! – and they need to be read!  I must not be afraid anymore….

10.  USE THE LIBRARY MORE

It’s something I started to do more during 2019 – especially when our local library was being threatened with closure – and I’ve loved spending more time in there and taking a chance on books I’d not normally have picked up! And with me supposedly buying less books in 2020, it’s going to be a great way for me to get that ‘buzz’ without spending any money!! Win, Win!!

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Wish me luck!! Are you a resolutions person?! Are there any bookish resolutions you’d like to try for 2020?! Good Luck!!