I always have so many ideas for reading goals that I never write down because if I did my list would be two pages long and I’d stress myself out and never do them. The year I went with just three goals was my best reading year. It also burned me out for the next six months. Surely there’s a happy median somewhere.
My Reading Wish List:
- World War II
- Revolutionary War
- Civil War
- World War I
- Read the World (all the countries)
- My unread bookshelf
- My unread Goodreads bookshelf
- All of Charles Dickens
- Pretty much all the classics
- Everything Erik Larson’s written
- Newberry Honor and Medal books
- Childhood favorites
- More childrens
- More YA
- More nonfiction
- …
Do you see? I want to read all the books, and my personality is such (cough cough OCD cough) that I want to read all the books about every subject. All. The. Books.
Reading Goals:
What’s a girl to do? So many good books to read, so little time. If I didn’t have a pesky day job and a pesky writing job and a pesky blog (that doesn’t produce money, I might add), then I could just read. All the time. “Moderation in all things” is not something I’m very good at. So here is to that happy median, some moderation within my reading:
- More World War II. What can I say? I just love reading about it: the time period, the struggle, the epic battle between good and evil, the struggle of humanity, the unexpected heroism and love.
- More Read the World. Like I said last year (and didn’t do), fewer countries than one a month (and more than one a year). But no hard limit. After all, it’s supposed to be a discovery. I want to enjoy the journey, not just reach a destination.
- Read some newly released books. Sometimes I get so consumed in reading what I have waiting to be read, that I don’t get to any of the new good stuff. Seeing as I’ll never catch up, there’s no point in going in order.
- Read all of Charles Dickens. Or Shakespeare.
- Rediscover some childhood favorites.
- More nonfiction. I’m thinking a variety of nonfiction. Maybe some science, some health, some history (Revolutionary War, mayhap?).
I’m trying to keep these goals open-ended and organic to change naturally with a shifting future. I don’t know what’s going to happen this year (hopefully good things and challenging situations that encourage learning and growth). Maybe I’ll discover a genre that I want to really explore or a new author (to me) that I want to read the collected works of. This actually happened last year. Upon finishing Reneé Ahdieh’s Flame in the Mist series, I immediately had to read everything else she’d written, which was the Wrath and the Dawn series (The Wrath and the Dawn and The Rose and the Dagger). I want to give myself that leeway to explore, so this list is, by necessity, fluid.
Happy reading this year!
Tyger Tyger 