20 January, 2012

Goals - Looking Ahead To 2012

As I've alluded to before, I will be revising my goals for this year. I still want to have some solid numbers, but nothing too much in stone. I obviously can't deal with that.

1. Read 50 Books

This is down from last year but only because I'll be taking the bar this summer. I'm giving myself a couple months break. I'll probably still be reading/posting through May/June/July (although I will probably cut down quite a bit) and maybe I'll change this number if it's too easy. I just don't want any pressure in any way whatsoever. This baby does not lend itself well to multiple takings.

2. Finish more than 2 series

I finished only two series last year and I really want to do better. Finish and then move on so I don't have to waste time figuring out what was going on before. Blogging has really taken a toll on my ability to stick with a series. It has nothing to do with how good the series is, only that there's always something new and shiny coming through the door that MUST be read before the series is completed. Luckily this is the year of series completions as you can see here.


Series I'm debating finishing given the mood: Malazan Book of the Fallen by Erikson (1 more), Shadow Saga by Sprunk (1 more), Macht by Kearney (1 more), John Cleaver by wells (2 more), Riyria Revelations by Sullivan (2 more omnibi), Dark Tower by King (4 more), Wheel of Time by Jordan/Sanderson (9 more - this will be a toughy).

Also, if you were curious, I've been keeping track of the series' I'm working through at my other blog. It's pretty ridiculous. I would really like to take some of these off the list.

3. Read more from my shelves


(This shelf is now 2 rows thick and piled to the top, one of many and all unread)


I have hundreds of books just sitting there on my shelves and plenty of completed-yet-unread trilogies (before I started my "Read one book before buying more to see if you actually like it" rule). Last year, only 10 of the 58 came from my shelves.

As I mentioned before, the new and shiny is so easy to jump into, but then I look at my shelves that are overflowing and see that none have been touched. Where did all my plans of reading go?


-----------
And that's it. Nothing too complicated, yet I think I'll have to stretch a bit to get to some of these. I want this year to be the year of finishing. Finishing series' I've been working on for years and moving on.

UPDATE: The Epic Wheel of Time Giveaway I said would start this week is having a couple of technical difficulties. We're still on for the giveaway, but it may not begin until next week seeing as how today is Friday.

8 comments:

Bibliotropic said...

My goals for the year are fairly simple ones. Mostly, I want to work on increasing my blog readership and then read and review 75 books. Last year I read 100, but part of the reason I managed that was because I spent some time not working due to injury, and I could do little but read all day for the better part of a month. With any luck, I won't end up injured this year and so won't have as much time to read. 75 is a decent goal for me, and I hope I can make it.

Best of luck with your goals! I look forward to seeing how it all works out!

Joshua Lowe said...

Get into that Mistborn, immediately! For shame!

ediFanoB said...

My goals look similar

- Read more than last year
- improve the blog
- review more books

Anyway like you I own a lot of unread books. I'm sure I would fail with the third goal.
But someday I really need to read more from my shelf.

redhead said...

my goal is always to read more off my shelves.

but it never works out that way. :(

Jamie Gibbs said...

My goal is to read a book every 2 weeks for the rest of the year. It's a small goal, but it'll vastly improve on what I did last year. I'm learning to increase my read speed as part of this

Ryan said...

You should definitely read a few more Dark Tower books, especially with the new one coming out this year.

I can't believe there's two Kearney Macht books out that I haven't read, I feel like such a slacker.

Unknown said...

Great idea with the series tracker post - I just put together the same sort of post to keep myself on track.

The conclusion to the Malazan Book of the Fallen really disappointed me, so I'd vote for The Dark Tower and Riyria Revelations.

Chris DeFilippis (DeFlip Side) said...

It's great to find such a like-minded reading community! I too have a library overflowing with to-be-read series, and my goal is always to read more books and improve my blog content and traffic.

My 2010 goal was to devote my reading solely to Series, Sequels and Shared Universes. The result: EPIC FAIL. Getting bogged down in series I didn't enjoy really cut down on my over-all reading. I talk about it here: http://deflipside.com/?p=3080

Thankfully, 2011 proved to be MUCH better in reading quality and quantity: http://deflipside.com/?p=4359

That being said, I'm surprised at the level of love for King's DT, which I see as concrete proof that his best writing is behind him; meanwhile no one has mentioned George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. For years now ASoF has been my go-to recommendation to anyone asking what series to read.

Look forward to following your progress in 2012.