Tuesday 8 January 2013

Top Ten Bookish Goals for 2013



Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week has a different subject, and this week is Top Ten Bookish Goals for 2013.

I've already written about a few of my goals, but I reckon it's worth putting them into a Top Ten Tuesday post, as I'm sure there are more which will come to me as I write! 

1. Don't buy any books for myself for an entire year (running 1st Jan 2013 - 1st Jan 2014) - I can buy books for the baby, and for gifts and RAK for people because I seriously think I'd have problems if I couldn't buy any books at all all year, but I'm going to try as hard as I possibly can not to buy a single book for myself all year. 

2. Read all the books on my challenge lists that I already own - as I'm not known for being the greatest at completing the challenges I join, I'm going to aim to at least read the books that I already own for them. To this end, I've put them all onto shelves together and I'm going to pick from those shelves whenever I'm looking for a new read. 

3. Continue with my Amazon ban - this is with the exception of gift cards, as I am obviously not going to reject the generosity of people (yes Hanna I'm talking to you!) who have gone out of their way to give me presents just because I have an issue with Amazon. 

4. Sign up for RAK every month - I love it, even if nobody picks me to send a gift to, I really love sending other people things and hopefully I can find a way to continue with it when my maternity pay stops in April and we're all poor again...

5. Read more non-fiction than I did last year (so more than 14 books) - I have Wild by Cheryl Strayed and The Library Book reserved at the library, so that's a good start. 

6. Participate in a readathon - I can say pretty definitively that much as I really love it, this won't be the 24 hour readathon, as I kind of feel that with my current baby schedule it would be pretty impossible for me to do it and still be any semblance of a normal person for my husband and baby. I am thinking of signing up for Bout of Books again, though, as the last time was really fun!

7. Do the Classics Club meme every month - I love the Classics Club, and I've actually included 10 of the books from my list on my 'must read in 2013' list. For the first few months it was going, I was really good about doing the monthly meme, but after Benji was born I got bad at it, and I'd like to start up again as it made me think about things a lot :-) 

8. Go to an actual, real life literary event - I have pretty much never been to an author signing, literary festival, or anything of the kind (barring the time I got an honorable mention in the poetry competition for Kingston Literary Festival, but that was years ago and as far as I'm aware there were no authors there, so doesn't count!). I really really need to change this and 2013 must be the year to do it!

9. Read the Mumsnet Book Club book every month - I just joined this in December so this month is my first month, and they give away copies of the book to a certain amount of people every month, so I got The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce in the post yesterday. Started it today and I already love it, plus I really miss being in a book club and I love the fact that because it's run by Mumsnet, people understand slow reading paces and attention span crises and they schedule their discussions for 9pm-10pm. So yes, every month. Book reading. 

10. Comment on blogs and make an active attempt to discover new blogs - I did this a lot in 2012 and loved it. It was so great to discover new blogs and 'meet' new people - favourite discoveries are Devouring Texts (already previously mentioned), Reader. Writer. Nerd., and outside of the realm of book blogging, Peacefully Knitting, Yarn Harlot, An American Cupcake in London, and The Bloggess, who I cannot believe I didn't read before 2012!

I'd also like to participate in more blogger events in 2013, like Bloggiesta, Armchair BEA, and The Broke and the Bookish Secret Santa if they run it again (please, please do!!), as I had an awesome time with it in 2012!

7 comments:

  1. Best of luck! I think the hardest one to achieve for me would be the Amazon ban. There is not a good single place to buy a book in English in my province, so I just use Amazon and BD.

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  2. Eight and ten! Definitely. I hope you find a great literary event to attend, I love the Boston Book Festival here and am desperate to get back to the UK to visit the Hay on Wye Festival at some point.

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  3. Wait, 'Kingston Literary Festival' as in KINGSTON UPON THAMES? Daaaaamn, we've just been crossing paths our entire liiiiives! Readathons are soooo much fun, you should definitely do one! I find the ones that last more than a day oddly pressurising, but that's probably more to do with me than the actual readathon, so yeah... GO FORTH AND READ!

    #1 is an insane goal, and if you do it I will be super proud! :) I'm already having troubles after a WEEK. Because I suck.

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  4. Wow good luck with #1, I could never do it!

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  5. Oh, do #8! I've loved almost all of the signings I've gone to, and the book conferences I've been to have been fantastic. Thanks for sharing, and best of luck with that book buying ban! You are far braver than I...

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  6. Wow, good luck with #1! I can barely get through a week without buying a book...

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  7. Wowza. Good luck with #1. It sounds like you have the right intentions, so I hope you see it through!

    My TTT: http://shelversanon.blogspot.com/2013/01/top-10-tuesday-bookish-goals-for-2013.html

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