TSS: 2011 Reading Resolutions

For last week's Sunday Salon post , I looked back at my year in 2010. Now it is time to look forward.

When I started thinking about my reading goals for this year, they look a lot like my goals in previous years! They generally involve reading a certain number of books, reading more Australian authors, and that at least some of the books I read should be books that I already own but haven't read yet.

Read 150 books -  Last year I was aiming for 125 books because I had changed jobs and therefore my commuting and reading time reduced, but I still managed to read 166 books, so I am thinking aiming for 150 should be a doable figure. I could try for more than I read this year, but I don't want to be forcing myself to read just to reach a hard to achieve goal.

Read 10 books that I owned as at 31 December 2010 - Every year I read less books that I own than come into my house. This is my attempt to try to make sure that I read at least a few that have been on my shelves for a while.

Reading Australian authors - Every year I look at my list of reads and think, gosh, I don't read enough Australian authors. This year I am aiming to read at least 12 books by Australian authors. I also rejoined the Aussie Authors Challenge to try and help me meet this goal.

Read some Jane Austen - A few years ago I aimed to read Dorothy Dunnett, and didn't manage to even crack open a book, and still haven't in fact. Last year I said "I intend to rectify what I feel is a major gap in my reading. I have never read anything by Jane Austen. I have watched a couple of the adaptations that are around and liked them, so we will see how we go with reading some of her books." Didn't happen. So now I have the books loaded on the ereader, and I have joined the Sense and Sensibility challenge, so maybe that will be the impetus that I require.

Perpetual Challenges - Last year, one thing that I didn't do very well at all is read for the perpetual challenges that I am signed up for like The Pulitzer Project, the Orange Prize Project, and the Complete Booker. This year I would like to read at least one book for each of these, if not more. I have cut back on a lot of my other reading challenges to try and do better with the perpetuals.

Finish War and Peace - Last year I started, and was really enjoyed War and Peace, but then I got distracted by other books. I want to pick it up again, and I know there are a couple of readalongs happening so I might hook up with one of those to assist me with that.

Review more - This is what I wrote last year "Over the last couple of years I have allowed myself to get very lazy about writing reviews of the books I read. I still start a blog post for every book, but not enough of them see light of day! This year, I am going to try to write at least one review a week, preferably more. Need to get back into the habit. I know that that really isn't many, but I do also want to be a no guilt blogger as well, because at the end of the day blogging is supposed to enrich our lives and be fun and not something that we are slave to." All of that is still relevant for this year!