Tuesday 8 January 2013

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Goals For 2013

I've missed the last three Top Ten Tuesdays in a row, which are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, but I'm back on blog updating track and determined not to include Chuck Wendig on this list!  That aim should be easy to accomplish this week, as the topic is all about my bookish goals for 2013.

1. Stop ordering so many books from the library.  I've already been on an ordering binge, and it's good to support your local library, but I need to limit how many books I reserve each month in order for me to achieve goal no.2.

2. Read more books from our own bookshelves.  I have about 15 books that I have bought over the last two years that haven't been read because of my library addiction.  This is the year that I will read and conquer!  Also, I plan to read all the interesting looking supernatural anthologies that my mum owns before she passes them on to make more room! 

3. Update blog at least three times a week.  Last year I managed to update my blog more than I did in 2011 (with 90 posts compared to 38), and I want the same for this year.  I'm not going to be strict with this goal, as life always throws up surprises, but if I had around 150-160 posts by the end of the year I'd be happy.

4. Purchase more books from independent shops.  This was one of my goals for last year, but I arrived home after my Christmas holiday to find that my town's only non-second hand bookstore was closing!  It was back to Waterstones, who I was becoming increasingly dis-satisfied with, especially after they depleted their Horror and Paranormal sections and only seemed to stock 50 Shades of Grey  (I walked in one day and I kid you not, there was at least four areas in the shop of which the series could be found.  I know it was popular and got people to actually buy a book again, but just please...one shelf would have been enough!).  However, sometime in the spring/summer a new, independent, books/stationary store popped up exactly where the old one used to be.  I fully intend to spend my book voucher/money there this year, while also purchasing books from the two excellent secondhand book sellers we have in town.

5. Try to read and finish a book on my KindleFire.  I'm still not sold on the whole e-reader thing.  While I've managed about 100 pages before, I think this has to be the year that I get with the times and read a novel entirely via my Kindle. 

6. Find a YA with absolutely no romance!  I'll be the first to admit that I have, in the past, been a YA book snob.  While there are exceptions to this rule, and indeed my snobbery subsided in 2012, my main problem with YA was that it was too soppy.  The girl was always mooning over two boys that she had just met and couldn't quite decide which one loved her more.  This post on instalove by Christina over at A Reader of Fictions pretty much sums up everything that I hated about the Young Adult fiction I had been reading.  Therefore, this year my quest is to find books without any romance and then tally them up at the end of the year and perhaps create a fancy pants graph and maybe a 'no-ro' button.

7. Embrace the book blogging community and comment on other people's blogs more.  I'm shy in real life, and I'm just as shy on the Internet.  I say or type things and they come out wrong but you know what, as long as it's not mean or spam, who cares?  I started doing Top Ten Tuesdays at the end of last year as a way to find out what other bloggers were up to and through it I've found some great blogs and had some nice comments, too. 

8. Recommend books to friends, and don't be afraid to lend them to friends.   A friend has lent me two books.  She lent them to me in October and I still haven't read them.  I am going to read them this month, but I'd love to lend her some of the books that I've read as I think she'd rather enjoy them.  Only problem is, the majority of my books come from the library!  Hence, this goal is really about buying more books...any excuse, I know! 

9. Do something on World Book Night.  I wish that I had been a giver on World Book Night last year, but I couldn't think of a good place to give them out to put on my application form  (Annoyingly, I was travelling to Norwich that evening, so I could have easily left them as a trail of breadcrumbs on my journey - if only I was psychic!).  This year I'm not as passionate about any of the books being given so I've not applied but I'd still like to attend an event or maybe on second thoughts I'll just apply...

10. Read more.  I read just over a hundred books in 2012, and I could have read more if I cut down on my 'staring into space' time.  Also, if I read more, I can get more books out of the library without feeling guilty!



So that's my long-winded list of goals and reasonings for 2013, what are yours?

15 comments:

  1. As a YA fan who is rolls her eyes at instalova, I hear you. Have you ever tried any of these, lower on the insanity of love spectrum...we have reviewed them all on our blog if you need a review of the "Paranormal Romance" level!

    Maze Runner by James Dashner
    Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
    Strange Angels (book 1 at least...) by Lili St. Crow+

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    1. I love the rating system on your blog, it's a great idea! Thanks for the recs, I haven't read any of them and will have to check them out sometime soon if it means being free of googly eyes for a bit!

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  2. I get really sick of romance in YA too. Maybe Ender's Game would count? It's more sci-fi than YA genre I think, but it's centered around young children / young adults.

    And World Book Night is a fantastic idea! I've always kind of regretted not signing up too, but maybe this should be the year!

    Good luck with all of your goals!

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    1. Thanks for the suggestion. I haven't heard of that one, but my library service stock it so may have to reserve it at a later date.

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  3. Reading from my own shelf is a huge goal for me as well! Good luck on all of your goals :)

    Here's my Top Ten!

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    1. Thank you! It's so hard when there's so many books in the library calling my name!

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  4. Definitely don't be shy on commenting- bloggers love comments!

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  5. I could only wish for a library here in the Philippines. You're so lucky to have one! I want to do 7 too! Hey, can you recommend some to me? But I might not see it here, so you can put it on my blog, Twitter @DivergentGryffi, or offashionandbeauty@gmail.com :) Thanks! And good luck! :D

    My Goals for 2013
    What I'm Waiting for This Wednesday

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    1. Thanks for commenting! I know I am really lucky to have such a great library service - even some places in the u.k will now be without one due to budget cuts which is crazy!

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  6. Emma my library normally gets New Releases pretty quickly so I also have that problem where I place too many things on hold or check out too many books.

    I've got a Barnes & Noble Nook E-Reader and I feel like it takes me a lot longer to read a book from the Nook than I do on printed...I don't know if I'm just imagining that LOL

    My Bookish Goals.

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    1. Thanks for commenting! Maybe you could note down how long it took you to read a book on your nook and then read a simillar length book the old fashioned way to see if there's any difference?

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  7. Great list! I enjoy YA fiction, but I also get tired of the love triangles. On the other hand, I also get tired of dystopian or supernatural YA stories, so what's left? I'll be interested to see that no-ro list of yours! I've pretty much stopped lending books because I get a little crazy when I give a perfect-condition book to a friend to read and they give me a less-than-perfect book back. Argh.

    Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

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  8. Oh no, I just entered a comment and it disappeared! Sorry if this is a duplicate... Anyway, great list! I'll definitely want to see that no-ro list of yours. :) I like YA fiction, but it's the same thing over and over again lately -- either romantic triangles, supernatural, or dystopian. What else is there? I've mostly stopped lending books because it upsets me when I lend out a book in perfect condition and it comes back less-than-perfect, particularly for my hardcovers. I like my books to stay pristine, especially if I've spent money to get a brand new copy!

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    1. Oh! That's probably my spam filter! Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I have that worry too about books not returning in the same condition, and mainly I worry about them not coming back at all! I can't think of many other genres of YA, maybe the new one of the protaganist having a terminal illness? But then I take it that romance still comes into play somehow? Will have to broaden my reading list and search for something a bit different!

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