January 6, 2015

2015 Reading Goals

My goals for this year are gonna be pretty sparse. And here's the reason:

Goal number one is to read at Whim! I'm taking to heart Alan Jacobs' injunction to read at Whim. Read what you want, when you want. Now, the two book clubs I run will mean that I can't read at Whim 100% of the time, but I will make an effort.

  1. Be more mindful of what I'm reading. There are two consciousness-raising challenges going around recently. They are Read Women and Read Diversely. I don't really struggle to read books written by women, but I only know that by looking back over what I've already read instead of being aware of it before I start. Read Diversely is intended to get people to read books by people who don't look like them, books about people with different life experiences, and books about different cultures.

  2. I set a Goodreads challenge to read 50 books this year. I read 104 in 2014, but with working twice as much, I think setting the goal at half as many is a wise life choice.

  3. Read the books I own. I have a lot of wonderful books I haven't read, that I am very excited about. I also work in a library. I frequently go overboard checking books out from the library, and my owned books go unread. Of the first 45 books on my Goodreads to-be-read list, 2 of them are not currently on my bookshelf. This is because I read all the other ones first. The ones I had to get from the library got read. The ones I owned languished on the shelf. Well, no more. I am currently reading 2 or 3 that I own. Good start!

I don't want to set any goals about reading particular books. I feel like that is a sure-fire way to create stress for myself. Reading shouldn't be stressful. Let's make reading fun again!