Reading Resolutions for 2008

Ok, so I know I'm getting way ahead of myself with this, but given that I've completed my 50 Book Challenge for 2007, I can't stop thinking about what my next challenges will be.

Numerical Challenge - 60 Books

Well this year, I managed to read 50+ books. Part of this was because I was in grad school for 6 months of the year and my job was to read. But many of these books were long, dense academic texts, so I think I can meet or exceed 50 books again in 2008. So I'll shoot for 60.

Author-Specific Challenges

In the last year or so I've discovered two new authors whose works I have LOVED, but I haven't read them very extensively. So I'd like to read more by them.

Read two books by Kazuo Ishiguro and two books by Haruki Murakami.

Book-Specific Challenges

I don't do well with specific TBR lists. Once I tell myself that I'm going to read something and it becomes a "to-do" and then I'll automatically lose all interest in reading it. But, there are some books that I really want to read and am going to make a specific effort to conquer in 2008.

(1) Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady – Samuel Richardson (F)
(2) Howards End – E.M. Forster (F)
(3) The Brief History of the Dead: A Novel – Kevin Brockmeier (F)
(4) The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins (F)
(5) Villette – Charlotte Bronte (F)
(6) War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy (F) (new translation)
(7) City of Oranges: Arabs and Jews in Jaffa – Adam LeBor (NF)
(8) Craze: Gin and Debauchery in an Age of Reason – Jessica Warner (NF)
(9) Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe – William Rosen (NF)
(10) The Making of Victorian Values: Decency and Dissent in Britain: 1789-1837 – Ben Wilson (NF)

My Reading Around the World Challenge - at least 5 new countries

I've really been failing at this challenge and as I look at my "must-reads" for the next year, none of them do much to make me a more diverse reader. The bar for this challenge is low - read books from 5 new countries in the next year. I would hope to do more, but I'd rather read books that I truly enjoy than simply read them in order to check a box on a map.

I'm in the same boat: finished my challenge a while ago, and now I'm looking forward.

I'm in the following groups:
1001 Books to read before you die
Dewey Decimal Challenge
Newbery Challenge
Reading the States

I also have a few other challenges relating to my lists on Lists of Bests. I think my goal for the upcoming year is something like:

1. Read all of my unread Star Wars books.
2. My "Big Five" will be the remaining five books in Winston Churchill's The Second World War series.
3. a book a month for each of the States, Newbery, DD, and 1001 Books challenges.
4. the Bible. I start it every year, and every year I fail to finish it. No more! Next year will be the year!

I think that comes out to 87 books (which more than takes care of my 50 Book Challenge), but the number may go down depending on how many SW books I read in the remainder of this year, and whether or not I finish the Bible or The Gathering Storm this year as well.

well... if you're aiming at the 1001 Books, download Arukiyomi's spreadsheet to help you track your progress.

I already did. :D I love that spreadsheet, you're awesome for putting it together!

>3 arukiyomi:, I downloaded it too and I thank you, Arukiyomi, for putting it together (and for your reviews, which are always fun to read!). I'm using it more as a reference than as a hard and fast guide, since I always struggle with those "must-read" lists of books.

...I always struggle with those "must-read" lists of books.

So do I. Your first post puts it perfectly.

However, Clarissa was also among my considerations for the next year. I devoured Pamela, and am doing well with another long, slow novel, so it is possible my penchant for shorter fiction could be overcome. Villette is another nice choice, on my shelves but unread.

Meanwhile, my real goals are undefined, as yet, but involve broadening non-fiction reading and hitting more classics, modern and otherwise. I've just started thinking about actual formulations for how to get that done. Guides are much better for me than rules and schematics. Hopefully, I'll have them figured out ASAP!

You folks are so methodical. I'm still struggling to get through my five big books. Not that I haven't been reading :) I think I've read more this year already than last year, but what with the group reads I've been participating in, the reviewing I've been doing at another site and also trying to get through my mystery and fantasy pile of TBR, those big books get slow. Still, I'll finish one this week, then start on Gone With the Wind.

Next year I know I want to tackle Trinity and Shakespeare (how could Shakespeare not show up in the touchstones? I haven't looked further than that yet. I like little goals. :)

Very wise. :)

Yeah, I always overshoot. That's why I've only given myself 10 specific books out of a total of 60.

I can't do specific lists, I always resist books I feel forced to read (even if it's by me) so I just do general 'this kind of books' goals. So, I think my goals for next year will be...hmm...

75 new books
10 nonfiction books (I think I've read two nonfiction books this year, ugh)
110 total books
33000 pages

Numbers may rise at some point depending on how much and what kinds of books I read (particularly total books/pages), but I think that'll be a good starting point.

I'm not entirely set in my goals, yet, but I think it's going to be something like this:

50 books in 2008, including:
20 from 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
20 from different Dewey Decimal classifications
5 from my TBR pile
5 "free" books

I plan to read Anna Karenina which is on my shelf.

I would like to re-try The Brothers Karmazov which I gave up on years ago.

I would like to read something by Virginia Woolf maybe To the Lighthouse or Orlando

Mary Shelly's Frankenstein

And I plan to read A suitable Boy

We'll see how it goes!

fannyprice

have you decided yet which Murakami books you're going to go for?

He's one of my favourite authors, and my favourites are After the Quake (a small book of short stories), The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and The Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (I was once reading this on a coach journey and at the end, the woman behind me asked what the book was - she'd been fascinated by the chapter headings).

I guess these are some of his more surreal works. I'm not so keen on the straightforward romances like South of the Border, West of the Sun.

Well, here's a stab at my big five, the only ones I'm willing to commit to. :)

Trinity by Leon Uris
The Complete works of Shakespeare
The Age of Revolution by Winston Churchill
The Grand Alliance by Winston Churchill
The Ingoldsby Legends, vol. 2 by Thomas Ingoldsby

I think that should keep me busy with big books.

Okay, here's my challenges for 2008. I don't think I met the 52 books for 2007, however, I did read six books that were over 900 pages each. (The Outlander series). I did come pretty close.

Over the past ten years or so, my reading has been strictly child rearing and homeschooling, with very little reading for pleasure. When I did read for pleasure it was tried and true authors that I had enjoyed in the past. I'm going to venture out this year and upon recommendations made by members of Library Thing, I'm going to read at least one book from:

Margaret George
John Irving
Sara Donati
Bernard Cornwell
Patrick O'Brian
James Michener (I've actually read one of his but I want to do another)
C.S. Forester
Sharon Kay Penman
Mary Stewart

I'm going to work on the following big books:
New Testament
Les Miserables
Gone with the Wind
Ladies of the Club

I'm going to work on the following classics:
Last of the Mohicans
Lord of the Rings - yes, believe it or not, I've never read it
A Tale of Two Cities
Sense and Sensibility
Great Expectations -I'm actually half way thru this but dropped it to read the Outlander series

I'm going to read the following autobiographies:
I married Wyatt Earp
Out of Africa
Letters of a Woman Homesteader

And the following biographies:
When the snow comes, they will take you away by Eric Newby

I'm also going to read thirty classics aloud with my kids. I have a huge list for this. Right now we're working thru The Littles series, which they adore.
Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett

Oh Huzzah, homeschoolmom, you're doing alot of my favorites!

Do start with Master and Commander for O'Brian but if you're willing to try to series go through Post Captain and HMS Surprise as well to give it a fair shot :) I'm not as huge a Hornblower fan myself and should really reread them more thoughly, but I'd recommend with going through the series chronologically Midshipman Hornblower (rather than Beat to Quarters). And enjoy Tolkien :)

A friend of mine just recommended books by Murakami. I don't know if that will happen this year, but we'll see. My goal in 2008 is to read 5 books a month, which will give me 60 books read by the end of the year. That doesn't seem like a lot, but I'll also be taking a grad class this winter, studying for the LSAT and hopefully relocating to a condo.

I love to do lists, however, I also find that once a book is added to my "list" I lose interest in reading it. I have two books that I borrowed from a friend to start the year with: "A Walk in the Woods" and "I'm a Stranger Here Myself" by Bill Bryson.

My goal is to read 100 books in 100 days.

>18 Enraptured:, Wow, that's an intense goal. Good luck! :)

Yikes! I was so proud of myself for finally finishing Moby Dick, now I see it wasn't even on my list of five to finish this year! I guess I had better get back into Shakespeare. I did start that. Then maybe Trinity, but I need some fluff for a bit after my 3 month long (felt like three years) sea voyage on a whaler.

zcannon, wow that is a crazy goal! make sure they are thin.

My only goal is 50 this year. The idea of a big 5 is kind of interesting. I've always thought of reading the entire Bible, since I've heard it really has somewhat influenced western literature :)

Wow, after that, I'm a bit intimidated, but here goes:

The Histories
The Confessions
David Copperfield
Zuleika Dobson

I was choking on all that reading so I picked something "light" for the last one.

I'll save all of Shakespeare for some other year.

How's everyone doing? I finished The Age of Revolution, I've read several of the Shakespeare plays, now I'm reading Trinity. Anyone else making progress?

About February I started keeping track of my reading on GoodReads (since I've been borrowing a lot of library books which I didn't want to add to my LT library). So, as of today, I've read 48 books, consisting of 14 PD James mystery novels, a pile of short novellas and a bit of new fantasy, and a small number of Wendell Berry books, though not as many as I'd like. You can, however, clearly see where I finished grad school :)

I've a much high proportion of newly read material than usual, as I'm often inclined to reread things (there are some books here which have been reread, mostly after a long absence). But the fortunate combination of Bookmooch and a library sale which is by my church (and in the academic year, open on Sundays) meant that I've increased the number of books I have on hand significantly, along with new material.

Ta Da!!! I finished Trinity. I thought I never would.

I am doing pretty well - read A Suitable Boy (fabulous!), To the Lighthouse (meh.) as my Virginia Wolf read. I did finally make it all the way through The Brothers Karamazov (whew!)

Have added Frankenstein to my TBR pile. My biggest failure is that Anna Karenina is still sitting on my shelves (for almost a year now.) -- but we still have several months to go in 08.

I'm starting The Grand Alliance now. After that it's just Ingoldsby Legends, because I'm pretty sure I'm not going to finish Shakespeare this year. I'm reading a play now and then and trying to watch at least two versions of it from Netflix. I'm hoping to go to a Macbeth production on Halloween, they are handing out garbage bags at the door to protect from blood splatters. :)