Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. “It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.” I was really happy to see that this week’s topic is about bookish resolutions because I did not have time to post mine at the beginning of January. It was surprisingly difficult to come up with ten bookish goals! I really do hope to stick to these this year.
Read big books
I am often intimidated by big books so I avoid them. I also get caught up in the number of books that I have read so I won’t pick up books over 500 pages. In 2018, I hope to focus on the number of pages that I read instead of the number of books.
Review every book that I read
Reviews can be difficult and time consuming to write, so I found that I fell behind a lot in 2017. I now try to sit down and write down my thoughts as soon as I finish a book. I then structure and expand on what I have written when I have the time.
Read outside of my comfort zone
I read a few books outside of my comfort zone in 2017, and I fell in love with a lot of them. For example, I never read SciFi but I loved Sleeping Giants which led to me reading books like Illuminae and The Martian- both of which I really liked! I want to do even more of that this year! Maybe I will try to read more high fantasy or even horror!
Join a readathon
I always have great intentions to join readathons but then I never do. They just seem to sneak up on me and I am never prepared for them! I would love to make the time to participate in one. Does anyone have any readathons that they love? Any advice would be helpful!
Bookstagram
I adore bookstagram and I look through it all of the time! I want to post more often but it takes a lot of work and I never seem to be inspired. Maybe I should try one of those monthly challenges? I also want to post on my bookstagram story more often, since I love watching them.
More time reading/less time on phone
I am sure many of you can relate to this but I am constantly distracted by my phone! I will be reading a book and think to myself “I wonder what is happening on twitter?” or “Who posted on Instagram?” I have committed myself to turning off my phone more often and putting more of my attention in to reading.
Read more non-fiction
I used to read a lot of non fiction, but I read less than five of them last year, and most of those were celebrity memoirs. I want to read more non fiction that focuses on important/interesting topics that teach me something. If you have any favourites I would love recommendations!
Do not fall in the to hype
I have come to realize that if a book is really hyped, I am often let down by it. I am going to be more picky about what I read this year! If I have a feeling that I will not enjoy a book, even if everyone is raving about it, I will not pick it up. I am trusting my gut in 2018!
Read the books that have been on my shelves for years
There have been a few novels that have been sitting on my shelves for a number of years. They are books that I want to read but have always been put on the back burner. I will be making them a priority in 2018!
Read more debut novels
I love supporting debut authors, and I read many fantastic debuts in 2017! I am hoping that trend continues this year! Does anyone have any debut novels that they are looking forward to this year?
I have never been great at sticking to my resolutions, but I have a good feeling about these ones! What are your bookish resolutions/goals?
The name of the wind is seriously awesome! If you love smartass main characters, that is 😀
Ah I do love characters like that!!
Great resolutions!! Keep them up 😉
Thank you!
Can I just steal all of your resolutions? Haha but seriously, these are great goals!
Also, I 15/10 recommend the Mistborn trilogy to you and everyone. I hope I’ll be able to read your thoughts on it this year!
You can totally steal these and then we can keep each other on track!
I am really excited about The Mistborn Trilogy!
i love your goals! 🙂 they seem all very achievable!
it’s really interesting. after watching so many booktube videos and reading about other people’s goals, i have a feeling that the whole book community was very stressed last year. about reading hyped books and the “i need to read this” vs. the “i want to read this”. i have a feeling, a lot of people want to slow down and read what they really want to read, which is awesome!
I have noticed that myself and I am happy that people are realizing this! It’s more fun to see people reading what they enjoy!
yes it definitely is! 😍
I CAN relate to the getting caught up in social media one. That’s why I have been trying to read as much print as possible lately. I find I get distracted less often without all these alerts flashing at me.
Those are some great goals! Good luck.
Thank you, Angie! I am starting to get better at not be distracted already! I just leave my phone in another room and that seems to help.
More time reading and less time on my phone is definitely a goal of mine for 2018 as well. We only live once and it feels so wasteful to spend time scrolling through Twitter when I could be doing something productive, like reading : ) Good luck meeting your bookish resolutions in 2018!
I completely agree. I hate to think of how much time I have wasted on social media! I hope you meet your goals as well!
Great goals!I should be reading more books I’ve had on my shelf for a while! Here’s my TTT: https://bookmuffin.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/my-2018-bookish-goals/
Thank you! I think a lot of us have that problem!
We Should All Be Feminists is great! So is Born A Crime by Trevor Noah. It’s about him growing up in South Africa during apartheid, and it’s so funny and well-written. I definitely recommend it if you want more non-fiction!
I completely forgot about that book! I had it on my TBR! Thanks for reminding me about it. It sounds fantastic!
I am right there with you with being intimidated by big books. I tend to stray away from them. I found that reading the bigger books as an ebook has been better for me, because I don’t physically see all the pages as I would if I was holding the book LOL. I also turn off the page count on my Kindle, so I don’t see them on there.
I used to review every book that I read, but somehow over the last year and a half I stopped and only stuck with ARCs or super new releases. Not sure what happened with that, but It would be nice to get back into reviewing more books as well.
My phone is my biggest distraction when I am reading too. I am constantly stopping to pick it up and scroll through. Sometimes I have to turn it off or put it in another room and resist the urge to go get it. lol.
I am almost always let down by really hyped books as well. It totally sucks, because I want to love them as much as everyone else but that just doesn’t always happen with me.
I made a list of a lot of the older books that I’ve had for awhile and hope to read majority of those this year. And maybe that’ll help with the hyped problem. Save the hype books for when it dies down and read more of my older books.
Great list of goals! Good luck with them. 🙂
That totally makes sense about reading big books on a kindle. I am constantly checking to see how many pages I have left when I read physical books and if it is too long I tend to get unmotivated!
Reviewing books takes a lot of time and effort and it is so easy to fall behind!
I have started leaving my phone in the other room and that seems to be helping so far.
I very rarely love hyped books and I do not know why!
I think it would be helpful to read hyped books later on when they aren’t being talked about all of the time.
Thank you so much for your comment!!
Great resolutions Kristin!
I am with on you on the Nonfiction resolution- there are so many interesting historical events and people that have been written about, and I have read hardly anything about them! I can confirm that In Cold Blood is brilliant though 🙂
Thank you Richard. I was just thinking about In Cold Blood. It is on my shelf staring at me and I am so tempted to pick it up. Maybe in February? A perfect Valentine’s Day read, right?? haha
These are some great goals!! I am in the same boat with bookstagram. I always want to post more, but I can never seem to have any good ideas. Also, you should DEFINITELY read Name of the Wind. It is one of the best books I have ever read, and even though it’s long, it doesn’t feel that way! 🙂
I can not believe how difficult it is to keep up with bookstagram. I am so baffled by people who post multiple times a day!
That is great to hear about Name of the Wind!
Right!? I am so impressed by all the artsy photos people can take. I’m happy if I don’t have my shadow in mine hahaha
These are awesome goals. I don’t always have the best of luck with hyped books so I try to be cautious or read them after the hype has died down. Good luck!
That is a great idea! I should try to do that more often as well.
yay east of eden!!! bonkers long but so worth it. i hope i have the time/energy to reread it someday.
these are all great goals! replace “nonfiction” with “classics” and i’m attempting (or ideally attempting) pretty much all of them :p
I know I am going to love East of Eden. No idea why I always put it off! I would love to read more classics as well. I wouldn’t know where to start!
I love your resolutions!1
i tried getting out of my comfort zone and read Horror, but i wasn’t a big of it tbh!
Also i really wanna join a readathone too! , let me know if there’s anything interested soon.
and about the hyped book! ugh, tell me about it, overhyped book always seem to disappoint me, somehow
I am skeptical about horror but can’t knock it until you try it right?
I will definitely let you know if I find a readathon!
I do not know what it is about hyped books!
OH MY LORD. EAST OF EDEN. I’m sorry. I lost control because East of Eden is such a wonderful book, so underappreciated, and I am painfully in love with Charles Trask. Composure, Malanie. <3 But I hope you love Charles as much I did. <3 <3 <3
Everyone who has read East of Eden seems to adore it! He is my favourite author! Can’t believe I have never read it. This is so cute! I can not wait to fall in love with Charles!
I know exactly what you mean about getting distracted by social media – I do it all the time and then wonder why I haven’t had chance to read! Great list – good luck with your goals!
It is so hard! So many distractions these days. Thank you!
These are some really good goals! I always find it so hard to stick to my bookish goals, but quite a few of these are ones I’m aiming towards as well, hopefully we both manage to do well with them!
Thank you so much! It is hard to stick to goals!
Great goals! I get what you mean about big books 😉 And I get what you mean about reading outside our comfort zone and more non fic. I definitely need to trust my gut more and not listen to the hype.
I think listening to my gut is the biggest thing that I want to work on this year!
I’m afraid of big books too so I haven’t read Games of Throne yet. Have you? I do make myself write a review before I start the next book and it helps 😊 Good luck!!
I read the first books in The Song of Ice and Fire and to be honest I was so confused. There were too many characters!
That is what I have been trying to do with reviews and it seems to be working!
GoT is so massive, I also found it hard to follow. I think, in that instance, it might have been helpful to have seen the show to have faces for all the many names mentioned. I also find it’s not a good audio book. because if I zoned out, I would have completely missed that the book changed character perspective, and that got really confusing. (same for Into the Water by Paula Hawkins, definitely not audio book material)
I’m trying to read a book a month in 2018. I totally agree with what you said about spending less time on your phone! Definitely going to borrow some of these book resolutions 📚📚📚
My phone is so distracting! I leave it in the other room when I read some times and that seems to help. Still, I will sit there sometimes and wonder “hmm I wonder if I have any messages?”
Am also scared of big books… unless I happen to be on holiday, then they’re great!
Even then I am scared of them!
I really love watching Read By Zoe’s readthon Vlogs on Youtube. I’m going to attempt to join her next readathon.
Ah I love those too! She’s so sweet and I love seeing her with her dad!
Many of these apply to me, too! Especially putting down my phone and Netflix and even just exiting out of WordPress and just READING.
It’s so hard!! I can’t believe how distracting wordpress can be!
I used to jot down some thoughts in a draft and then go back to finish up my review. I prolong and procrastinate writing so much now that I think my reviews are suffering for it. I should get back to that old habit, too.
It’s so hard to get in to habit but so easy to get out of it! It has been helpful for me so far!