Top Ten Bookish Resolutions We Have For 2016

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We decided to share our bookish resolutions this week!

 

Daisy's Picks

1. Read my own books: I mean, I LOVE that I can request and get approved for egalleys, but I'm completely neglecting the shiny books on my shelves that I or other awesome people pushed money at to get on said shelves, which is sad. Very sad. The books are feeling sad and neglected and I want to make them and myself happy.

2. Get the number of books on various lists down: Particularly the list of series that I own completed but haven't started yet and the series that I need to either continue or finish. I have this irrational fear of finishing series and I really need to get it together and keep up with the series that I loved the first book of, because with some it's been years and I've forgotten so much of the story and it just needs to happen.

3. Non-bookish: fold the laundry more often: I majorly fail at this. And since I now have a lovely lady who cleans my house, I should be a bit better about keeping it tidy and adult better. Which means clean clothes need to go IN the closet and not lounge around on a chair until I just wear them again because it's easier than folding them.

Jamie's Picks

4. Finish the Harry Potter series: I read book 1 last year and then I read book 2 and 3 in the past couple months so I would really like to keep GOING!

5. Rid myself of piles of books: I've got more than enough book shelves and I still have piles. I need to cull enough to get rid of the piles that have taken over my apartment!!

6. Return my library books on time: NO SERIOUSLY. I am always the worst at this but this year I feel like I paid A LOT in library fines. It's a lot of laziness (I just want to get home after work and not go drop them off) and also because I have hopes I will read them all.

Jana's Picks 

7. I resolve, in 2016, to read what I love and not feel pressured by numbers or what's popular right now or what's releasing soon. I want reading to be about me again.

8.  I resolve to not feel bad when I see others reading WAY more books than I do. I'm a slow reader because I love to savor books and think about them. And that's ok!

  Julia's Picks

9. I resolve to actually read this year. Last year was the least I've read in a long time. My reading time was replaced with streaming time. I really miss the metal adventures though so I want to read. 

10.  I resolve to write more reviews, either on here or for myself. I got very lax with reading but also tracking what I did read last year. It makes it really hard to look back and see what was read, what trends I'm leaning towards, stuff like that. But writing reviews or even short notes really helps when reading a series and the next book doesn't come out for years. So I want to do that again :)

Tell us your book related goals for 2016!

On Finishing Books and Not Finishing Books

Yesterday, our Top Ten Tuesday topic was our ten goals or resolutions for 2015.  I didn't contribute to the post here, but I wrote my own post on my blog.  Eight of my resolutions dealt with either reading or writing because those are two areas I really want to work on next year.  I want to read more and to read better, I want to finish some writing projects I've started, but I really want to start finishing the books I start.

I am a chronic abandoner.  Most of the time it's not a conscious decision, where I say, "I've given this book (insert criteria for leaving a book) and it's just not getting me, so I'm not finishing."  No, most of the time I'll start a book, really enjoy it, recommend it to some friends, and then start gravitating towards another book.  Usually, this happens as a result of going a couple of days without much reading, but often enough it's because I start thinking about a second book and just can't stop thinking about it, so reading the first book becomes a chore, meaning that I'll usually opt to not read rather than force myself to read something I don't want to read.  This means that in a given year, I start a lot of excellent books and read a ton of pages, but only wind up finishing around 25.  At the rate that my "books owned" list grows, I have little hope of ever finishing everything.  Not that the goal is to finish everything (there's just not enough time in the world to read all the books), but I would like to make a good dent, you know?

There are quite a few articles out there arguing both sides of the issue.

For:
Why Finish Books? by Tim Park
Why You Feel Guilty for Leaving Books or Games Unfinished by Thorin Klosowski
Finish that Book! by Juliet Lapidos
Why I Finish Books by Nicole Perrin
More on Finishing Every Book You Read by Joanna Cabot
Finishing a Book You Don't Like:  Do You or Don't You? by Kira Walton

Against:
(Don't) Finish What You Started by Evan Gottlieb
On Not Finishing Books and a Blog Worth Following by David Dobbs
Now I Stop Reading a Book if I Don't Enjoy It, Do You? by Gretchen Rubin
Promiscuous Reading by Mark O'Connell

Everyone has their own reasons for finishing or not finishing.  Some say that you should finish out of respect of the work/author.  Some people just like to finish what they start.  On the other hand, some people don't want to be bored or pressured.  Typically non-finishers have a set criteria of reading so many pages or so many chapters and if the book isn't capturing them, it gets let go.  And I can totally see this if you are reading for reasons other than pleasure.

I've been reading The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller, which is a great book that I haven't finished yet.  The following quote really set in my mind the seeds for this resolution:

However, once you start to give up on books, you may lose the skill of finishing them – my early difficulties with The Master and Margarita and Middlemarch proved this. In addition, your opinion will automatically be worth less than that of someone who has taken the trouble to finish the book because, in at least one key respect, they know what they are talking about and you don’t.  (Miller, Andy (2014-12-09). The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books (and Two Not-So-Great Ones) Saved My Life (pp. 140-141). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.)*

I don't want to lose the skill of finishing books.  I really like finishing a book.  I love how you turn to that last page and your chest gets all tight and then you digest the last word and you can breathe again.  Then you kind of sit in wonder and look at the world with new eyes.  Or maybe that's just me.  I agree that finishing books helps give the speaker a bit more credibility when they say they hated a book because they really worked at finishing it and didn't just dismiss it without knowing if there were any redeeming qualities.  Personally, I like to be able to give good reasons when I am discussing books, which frequently requires finishing the book in the first place.  Miller goes on to say that "you may erode your integrity to a point where you sincerely believe the difference between saying you have read a book and actually reading it is little more than semantics" (Miller, The Year of Reading Dangerously, p. 141).*

In 2015, I resolve to finish most books that I start, but not necessarily all of them.  

I'll break in here to say that by "start" I mean the books I spend a day or two reading a good chunk of, not one I just pick up and read the first few pages of when I'm trying to decide what to read next.  Part of my process of picking the next book usually entails grabbing several from my shelves and sampling the first few pages of each until one grabs me.  Sometimes it takes a couple of trips to the shelves.  And then sometimes I just KNOW what I want to read next.

I think for me it will mostly be a matter of focusing my attention and not letting my mind wander to all of the other books out there.  I am sure that at some point I will encounter a book that I find to be truly heinous and I'll have to decide what I am going to do about that.  Maybe give it 20% of the book and if I am just legitimately not feeling it, set it aside.  I say that because I firmly believe that some books are a matter of right place, right time, right mindset.  For instance, I'm currently reading a contemporary book that I just don't know how I feel about.  The premise is interesting.  I can relate to some of the thoughts and impulses of the protagonist.  But at times the book is kind of off-putting in how it unfolds and I don't know whether I like it or not.  At this point, I would say that it's not going to wind up on any of my favorites lists or even one I'll keep to reread, but it may surprise me.  So I push on.  On the other hand, I've started books and read a few pages and just didn't get sucked in.  I don't feel that I really owe these the effort of finishing right then, but admit that maybe later on I'll fall in love with them.


What about you?  What are your thoughts on finishing or not finishing the books you read?  If you are a finisher, how do you keep your focus when you aren't really feeling a book?  If you are not a finisher, what are your criteria for setting aside books?  Do you set them aside temporarily or forever?


*Can I just say that I LOVE how the Kindle app on my Mac automatically adds the citation for the quotes I'm using?!  I hate creating the proper citation.

Our Top Ten Bookish Resolutions - Top Ten Tuesday!

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 Top Ten Bookish Resolutions

 

Jamie's Resolutions

* Do a better job with my Netgalley & Edelweiss books: I went overboard back in the day and I REALLY need to read the books I requested so I'm pretty much not going to request anymore (or use that damned auto approval and download them) until I get my NG ratio up and get a chunk of them off my Kindle.

* Read 5 classics in 2014: Pre-blogging I used to read more classics and I just haven't been anymore because they take me longer and require a little more patience. I need to stop caring about that and just read because I truly WANT to read some of these classics on my bookshelf.

* Stop being afraid of chunky books: I have so many HUGE books on my bookshelves and I need to stop being afraid to read them and also stop caring about how it will affect my blogging if I tackle them because I typically think, "I could read 3 books in this time."

Bridget's Resolutions

 

* Read more non-fiction books: Almost every non-fiction book I've read, I've liked--so I want to try more! Plus I learn stuff!

* I second Jamie's resolution to do better with Netgalley!!

Jana's Resolutions

* I want to read more books! Sometimes I read slow, sometimes I'm too tired, and sometimes I'm in a slump and neglect my books forever. I want to read more, and beat my 62 books read from last year.

* Read books with more "heavy" subject matters: I hate crying, so I shy away from a lot of books with heavy subject matter. I won't read John Green or Gayle Forman even though all my friends love them! I'm just so scared! I need to get over this. What books do I need to read, peeps? Lay them on me!

* I want to be ok with not finishing a book:  If I don't like a book, I'll quit it! That should help with my reading slumps, too. Why waste time reading a book I don't like?

Paula's Resolutions

 

* I want to read 10 books physically sitting on my shelf before I buy new ones.

* I want to read a book that has been on my to-read shelf for over a year

*  I want to keep my book club going all year.

Tahleen's Resolution

 

* To read as many of the Youth Media Award winners as I can once they are announced at the end of January. Definitely at least the Printz winner, and preferably all of the honor books.

So what are your resolutions for the new year in relationship to books and blogging?

** A note about the linky change: Mr. Linky wasn't working when I went to post this so I was forced to switch to another linking service that I had already been contemplating because Mr. Linky had been acting a bit wonky. Upon further inspection, I think I am in LOVE with this new one and will go forward with it. There is also a randomizer feature for the linky that I am DEFINITELY going to utilize because 1) now people don't have to all refresh hoping to be #1 on the list at midnight because it's all random and 2) you can discover some new people at the top! Any time you go to the page someone new will be on the top! **