My goals are pretty simple for 2024 but I like to write them down so that I can look back, at the end of the year. So, here goes:
1. 2024 brings the return of the full-year book-buying ban. I have two exceptions, books for book group discussion and library sale finds. However, I can only bring home as much as I donate. So, if I take a single book to donate when I work in the library sale (I'm a volunteer!), I can only bring one home. If I'm miserable, mid-year, I will allow myself one Book Outlet purchase, but only one. And, I'm going to do my best to avoid even that.
2. Read from my own collection, particularly the floor piles. I have too many books, hence the buying ban. There's no longer any remaining shelf space (partly because I gave my son 3 bookshelves, last year — that's one way to force yourself to go through your books!) I do also plan to work on thinning the many remaining titles on my shelves.
3. No floor piles by the end of the year. Good luck to me.
4. Read what calls to me. The only exceptions will be books read for my book group and any unsolicited arrivals that appeal to me. I still occasionally get a book in the mail and I will always read those in a timely manner if they interest me.
My numerical goal is set to 100 at Goodreads because that's usually an easily achievable number (I don't want my book goal to become something stressful) but I'd like to try to read more novels. I have a handful of remaining manga and graphic novels and I always have a nice stockpile of middle grade books, so I have books to turn to if I'm feeling bogged down and need something light. But, I felt like I read a bit too many very short books in 2023, so I want to stretch myself a bit.
I usually choose one or two classic chunksters to try to read (last year, I read one of the two I chose). This year, nah. If I feel like reading a classic chunkster, I will. But, I'm not going to make any particular title a goal.
The same is true of genres. I have some things I'm letting float around in my head that I'd like to focus on: more classics, some Japanese and Australian titles. But, I find that if I let books call to me rather than making a plan, I enjoy my reading more. Challenges, in particular, seem to bog me down, which sucks but it is what it is, so I'm just going to let my own needs dictate how I read.
By the way, is that image above beautiful, or what? It was taken in Poland by someone called @freestocks and I found it at Unsplash, a great place to find free images.
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I finally got rid of my floor piles! Although, I'm not sure it counts because I've stacked books on top of four bookcases & one tv table. I am drastically reducing my purchases, though, while I work through what I've got. (I do also have a large box of books under our dining room table, but those are ones that I've finished and am trying to sell, so they don't really count as "floor piles," right?)
ReplyDeleteWell, that's one way to get rid of the floor piles! Haha, yeah, I'll go with that. They don't count. ;)
DeleteI don't really have any surfaces left for stacking, unfortunately. And, I've been selling and donating regularly, so I just need to keep that up and stop buying, read down the piles, and thin my collection. Fortunately, I had a successful book-buying ban year, a couple years ago, so I'm going into it a little more easily than I did the first time (apart from a few last-minute panic purchases)!
These days I read mostly what calls to me, and they are in ebook format as I gave away 98 percent of my paper books!
ReplyDeleteI'm still a paper girl and I have literally thousands of books, so my aim is to thin those down and read of as many of the books that remain as possible. I could never go strictly to e-books but I know a lot of people who've done that and they're happy to have lightened the load! I'm glad that works for you!
ReplyDeleteThat is a beautiful picture. I'm close to floor piles, myself. If I hadn't given up a bookcase to The Spawn, I'd be okay.
ReplyDeleteWe're in the same boat. Younger son moved into his first house and we decided to turn a room into my "art studio" so we emptied the bookcases in that room and gave them to him. Like mother, like son. His shelves are already bursting. I got rid of a lot of books when we emptied those shelving units but I still have a long way to go.
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