In last year’s Reflections post (thinking back on 2021’s reading, from January 2022), I realised that I hadn’t read at all according to plan the previous year. And…I had what will likely prove to be the reading year of my lifetime in 2021.
Which is how you create a success out of failing to achieve your main goal (mine was to read less and write more). That’s my primary goal for 2023, too—to prioritise writing over reading—so we’ll see. Maybe I’ll take up marathon running.
Even though it seemed foolish to make predictions, I planned to read more poems and look at more pictures in my 2022 reading, and that went well. There were a lot of floating plans behind these two key ideas, too, though: short stories and books listed for Canadian literary prizes (I read them but not as many as usual), non-fiction and international fiction (I read this, too, but not so much). Okay, so this might go off the rails or tickety-boo: one of those, or somewhere between.
In 2023, I’d like to blend old and new.
I have several shelves of older books that I tend to overlook in favour of contemporary writers’ works. Last year, just 9% of my reading was published before 2000, and the oldest book was from 1922 (a reread, Elizabeth von Arnim’s Enchanted April). The past couple of years my reading has been heavily weighted in favour of publications from…well…the past couple of years. But I would like to spend time with more older books this year, and keep the stacks fresh with magazines and journals along the way.
Time to look backwards for a spell.
And Mister BIP often buys me books and good ones (the kind I would find a pleasure, not a labour, to read)—most recently from Bakka-Phoenix and A Different Booklist in Toronto. I am an enthusiastic recipient, but then I get lost in other reading plans and they sit, neglected. Many are science-fiction and fantasy by writers I’ve really enjoyed (like Nalo Hopkinson, N.K. Jemisin, Becky Chambers, Aviaq Johnston, and Terry Pratchett) but I’ve fallen “behind” with them. Some are reprints of favourites that I previously read from a library (like Octavia Butler, Ursula K. LeGuin, Guy Gavriel Kay, Hiromi Goto, and Naomi Novik).
And…look forwards, too.
Vague ideas don’t offer enough direction for me. I could say “read more old books” forever and maybe I would read one or two. Always intending to do so, but never actually making it happen. Particularly when the allure of the new book is such a strong pull.
Well, you know how it is. You know better than most. Even if it’s a new edition of an older book, it’s got an edge on the longtime shelf-sitters, doesn’t it. So, if I’m to get specific with goals, how about this:
- 20 books dating from before 2000
- 20 gifted books/copies I’ve not yet read
- 20 other books from my shelves (any date/source)
There are some other projects hovering around the edges, but that’s just how it is around here.
How about you? Have you made specific plans for 2023, or are you planning to NOT plan?
My reading plan is the same every year: try to chip away at the TBR list. Hasn’t happened yet! I quite enjoy being taken in unexpected directions, though, so it’s fine 🙂
I’m making an effort to read more hardbacks sooner after I get them and before they come out in paperback (this looks like it might be a result of the new bookshop doing so many enticing author talks!) and I’m also committing to spending my book tokens rather than hoarding them, though this has led to an explosion of the TBR shelf …
I try not to make plans knowing that I’m going to end up making some along the way. I like to live on the edge. I’m like that in other areas of my life, too… not good at making plans. My main goal is to enjoy my reading and get something out of it, which is usually how it goes!
I’m excited for you that you’re going to do more writing this year!
Haha, I made my comment on your Reflections post about setting specific numbers too soon! I love your goals. I look forward to following along.
I’m laughing in recognition. My own reading path is more happenstance than planned. I get easily sidetracked and suddenly, out of nowhere, the empty spaces I have painstakingly created on my bookshelves are full again and piles that are relevant to current projects or states of mind are tumbling everywhere.
Mr. BIP sounds like a keeper. And now, as soon as I’m back in the city again, I won’t be surprised if I feel the need to go to Bakka-Phoenix & A Different Booklist…
But for writing, I’m trying, now, to work with more intention to meet concrete deadlines even if they are self-set. My plan isn’t to necessarily to create volume, although finishing one particular project is part of my goal, but I want to inhabit my writing, to stay present with it in a much more intentional way.
WaaaAAAAit, are you saying those little spaces are full again, already? I just HEARD ABOUT THEM FOR THE FIRST TIME IN DECEMBER!
You don’t have to wait (unless you want to browse)…they both ship (and are reasonable/fair about those costs). But of course that won’t help at all with those barely-there spaces on your shelves either!
Wise words and, as you’ve likely intuited, particularly helpful for my current situation: thank you. (And I agree that volume-oriented goals are tricky, your approach sounds more reliably achievable.)
Weeelllll, um, yeah. Was it only December? 2022?
I love that your husband buys you books, that’s very cute. No one purchases books for me, which I actually quite prefer because I like sticking to what publishers send me (or occasionally getting something from the library or a book I’ve bought myself) but I love the idea of him knowing you well enough that he can actually get you something you want, despite the fact you read soooo many books! That’s true love right there.
Only the slimmest of slices overlap between his and my reading preferences, so he actually gets his gift ideas from comments and posts and other stuff I’ve put online (so it’s a good thing that I am honest about stuff and don’t just randomly say I’m interested in reading something, just to be polite!); I like your “true love” theory, but I think it’s more his research skills that work for me in this particular instance. Heheh
What a great chap, Mister BIP! I see there Ninefox Gambit, I’ll be very curious to read your thoughts on it! 😀
And what an ungrateful dame I’ve been in return! Now I simply have to shape up. LOL
This side-quest of mine will have the additional benefit of our reading material overlapping more than usual too (Yoon Ha Lee’s in the mix for sure!
I was just checking out the Phillip K Dick award nominees… (but, wait, that’d be NEW books, even if they are SFF).
I do have some plans and this time I’ve actually written them out. Haven’t shared them on the blog yet but I am trying to see how it goes. I tend to be such a mood reader that sometimes that doesn’t work with my reading plans but we’ll see. And, like you, I plan to read more poetry this year. I’ve been reading a poem a day and I think that’s helped me get out of my comfort zone. Hope you have a wonderful reading year ahead you have fun with your reading plans!
Writing them down always helps…and I know you’re big on journalling too, so you know that better than most!
I used to have a daily poetry habit too, and it was missing that morning ritual that got me back into poetry this year.
It can really help to frame your day a little differently, to slow and read just one verse.
Hmmmm, I should go and add a collection to the stack right now too!
How’s that go? Make God laugh–tell him your plans? The lure of the new and shiny is always a tough one.
I’d like to keep reducing the percentage of unread books around here–reducing the quantity seems beyond me, because I keep acquiring new ones…
More writing would be good, too. Good luck to you with that!
It’s instinctive, isn’t it? But so far my off-the-shelf reading this year has proven that other old acorn of wisdom, that the stuff you picked years ago when it was new is ALSO good stuff. Heheh
Wouldn’t selecting a number as the goal actually deflect from the reality that the other number (the accumulation) is not static? Not that I’m trying to help you manipulate the stat’s to faciliate… (Or…maybe I am…)
It is true that all those books I acquired at some point in the past, I did so for a reason, and that reason was pretty often a good one.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom has really only ever applied to me for books…I need all the help manipulating statistics I can get!
Good luck with your goals! I have no real plans. I will keep on reading Ursula Le Guin. I am in the middle of the final Earthsea book. I also want to start rereading Octavia Butler and read several of her books I haven’t gotten to yet. Other than that, who knows?
Have you watched the adaptation of Kindred yet? Is that one of Butler’s you’ve already read? (You wouldn’t want to spoil it, if you don’t already know the story…it’s a good one, the book I mean…haven’t watched the show yet, but I will!) Those are great plans, enough to keep you busy for sure. I pushed my Le Guin plans rereads ahead as we chatted about at some point, so I’m looking forward to that too (I think Bill is looking to reread some this year too).
I was surprised to look back at my goals for 2022 and see that I’d said I wanted to read more backlist books. I had completely forgotten making such a resolution! In the end, I read 55.1% pre-2022, but not necessarily old-old stuff (with the exception of Revelations of Divine Love!). Only 27 were pre-2000. The year clubs Karen and Simon run are always a good excuse for me to put some classics on my reading piles. But I agree with you that setting a vague goal is a recipe for failure, so if I want to do better at things like clearing my review backlog and set-aside shelves, reading from my own shelves, and reading one or more books by authors for whom I own 3+ unread books, I need to set specific targets!
That’s how I felt with that earlier set of goals…say, what? They seemed to belong to another reader altogether! I love the “year clubs” but even though I often source out more than one option, I only end up reading one (no good reason either). This year I’m thinking that some series might help root me-for a little longer-in earlier times. Like Richard Ford’s Bascombe novels (although only two of them are pre-2000), which is also housed on that ridiculously stubborn bookshelf you know about, the one to which books are always added and never leave. Heheh With the new books, I find that the number of current year reads actually seems reasonable but, then, when I look at the previous two years, it’s clear that mostly I’m just reading “new” books, only that “new” means “new-ish” even when it feels all new. Yours all sound like very reasonable goals; I’ll pop by to see how you’ve figured them exactly!
My reading goals are more fluid but involve reading more of the books in piles so the house will be less chaotic. That is the other result of reading so many recent books from the library. In my mind, the books I own fall into three categories: keepers, possible keepers, candidates for donation once read. I’d like to read and/or discard from the third category and do less comfort rereading from the first!
Wishing you a Happy 2023!
Happy 2023! I love the idea of simply reducing piles (although I would need to count them or something, because I languish without a figure of some sort) and I’m curious about the distinction between a “possible keeper” and a “candidate for donation once read.” Isn’t the donation-candidate a possible keeper until you’ve read it? Is there some overlap between the categories, or is the latter more of a “literary candy” type of deal, a book that you already know you’ll inhale but that you won’t want to revisit for some reason?
I’ve kind of made some plans, which I posted about, although I am not going to beat myself if I don’t stick to them. There are books and series which have been in the stacks for ages, and I would like to get to them, and really make an attack on the TBR. And my plan is to read more if I can, because I find it keeps me balanced. I like your plans and they sound manageable! I think my main aim is always to enjoy what I read…
Reading through these comments, I’m wishing that I had done more visiting before posting about my goals, but, then, maybe it’s just as well, because I know, for instance, that even brushing up against the idea of your various reading projects (many of which, like mine, were intended to span several years but maybe not QUITE so many LOL) instantly makes me wish I’d forwarded a couple of my own for 2023. Heheh Literary contagion! In the best way.
I’m in the “no goals” camp this year. Instead I have some general directions which — like you — include reading more of the books already in the house. The last couple of years I had a specific goal about reading those: last year it was #22in22 (ie read 22 books from my current stack); the previous year it was #21in21. This year I won’t set a number. I’m hoping it will be very liberating
Not setting a number, for me, has resulted in my rediscovering a love of doing all the OTHER things I like to do. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I suppose, but doesn’t count towards my innumerable reading projects. However, I can see it working the other way too, and simply creating an air of possibility and excitement without a hint of obligation: hopefully that’s what’s in store for you, in your not-23-in-23 year.
It’s interesting to see from various blogs how much our personalities influence whether we need specific goals or prefer a free and easy approach. Neither is right or wrong – we all have to choose what works best for us individually
For those of us with a robust number of reading years and experience behind us, there have been more opportunities to try different approaches (but, maybe not, maybe some people remain committed to a singular approach throughout their hopefully-lengthy reading lives); I’ve found that seemingly opposite approaches have worked for me, in different years. I’ve not thought of it as reflecting different personalities (obviously there are different ways to think about personality and I know there’s debate about how much of it is static and mutable and even about defining it), so much as having different priorities in different years…but maybe someone else would view that as a reflection of changes in personality? Interesting…
I too would like to prioritize writing over reading, but I think I say that every year. Last year I focused in part on Seagull Books reading 20 books in honour of the 40th anniversary. It was rewarding and proved a good way to make a small dent in the many books I have from them (and get more). This year I have committed to focus on Archipelago Books (maybe two per month). They are another indie publisher with a wide, most translated, catalogue of which I own many and regularly receive more. Apart from that I want to read some more recent English language work, again from indie publishers and try to up my Can Lit game (at which I am very weak) just a little.
If you’re looking for an accountability partner, with no record of success in this vein, you know where to find me…behind a stack of books I did NOT write. Heheh
Archipelago I’ve got on my shelves…I’ve borrowed Seagull Books but don’t own any (yet)…both outstanding projects. It’s amazing how a single publisher, with a backlist that appeals, can provide so many hours of good reading.
And I wish I had more international lit in translation under my reading belt (somehow, even metaphorically, this phrase doesn’t seem to suit a compulsive reader’s wardrobe)!