Reading Resolutions

This entry is coming a little late. In all the excitement of the holidays and subsequent near-hibernation levels of relaxing I enjoyed, I ended up abandoning my blog for a bit. And now I have a bunch of things to write to get caught up, including entries about several books that I finished a while ago.

But this post is about looking forward and setting reading goals for the new year. Last year I joined Goodreads, set a goal of 52 books, and attempted a couple of reading challenges. I flew past the book goal, clocking in at 90 books read in 2014. But I ultimately abandoned both challenges.

This year I've set my goal for 75 books. I don't want to push myself too hard, and I want to have some room to rest in case I do hit a slump this year. I'd also like to spend some time doing things other than reading and obsessing about all the books I haven't read yet. Things got a little crazy last year, especially since I was paying more attention to new releases and various book blogs. I'm hoping to take a step back and just enjoy whatever I'm reading at the moment with less pressure to get to the next book.

I also don't think I'll do an official reading challenge this year. Though I did come across a few interesting ones, especially Book Riot's Read Harder challenge. But mostly I just want to increase the diversity in what I read while still making room for books I enjoy. To that end I'm going to do my best to seek out books written by authors from other countries. Books that are set in Africa and Asia and Latin America, and also books set in America written by African-American, Asian-American, and Latin-American authors. There's a few on my list already, and I'll be keeping my eye out for more.

At complete odds with this goal, I've also started reading Robert Jordan's 14-book epic The Wheel of Time series. Classic high fantasy written by a white dude. But it's good so far, and I'm hoping to make a big dent in it this year.

In addition to these reading goals, I'm setting myself a writing goal. I'd like to get something actually published this year. Nothing too big, just a small article on par with some of my blog posts. I've written a couple of things that I'm pretty proud of, and I'd like to see how I measure up against a bigger audience.

So those are my big 2015 resolutions. Read a little less, but in ways that expand my horizons and get something small published somewhere. Wish me luck.