Top Ten Reading Goals for 2013 (Top Ten Tuesday)

Top Ten Reading Goals for 2013

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature/meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. 

NOTE: some of these were included in the goals I posted last week; others are new.

1. Read at least 140 books.  I’ve signed up for the Goodreads Reading Challenge for 2013.  I set my goal at 140 books for the year.  Yes, it’s the same number as last year, but my weekly schedule hasn’t gotten any lighter!  140 books in a year gives me an average of about two-and-a-half days to get through a book.  Given the demands on my time, that’s about right.  And after all, I need to have time to write reviews, too!

2. Read at least 52 books I’ve never read before.  That’s right. One a week.  It doesn’t sound like much of a challenge until you look at my reading lists for the last few years, which are really heavy on the repeat books.  I do love returning to old friends, especially when I’m feeling stressed, but if I don’t start reading more new-to-me books, I’ll never get through my huge TBR list!  (I probably won’t get through it anyway.  It keeps growing faster than I can read, let alone get the books from the library!)

3. Read at least 20 authors I’ve never read before.  I thought about setting this goal higher, but there are a lot of authors I follow, whose forthcoming books I plan to read.  Twenty new-to-me authors is a manageable challenge.  If I exceed it, I’ll feel even better.

4. Read at least 12 nonfiction books.  One a month, on average.  I’m off to a good head start; I‘m partway through Jana Riess’s Flunking Sainthood.  Nonfiction isn’t usually my go-to genre for pleasure reading, but I’ve been coming across more and more intriguing nonfiction books recently.  Twelve books may be a stretch, but I should be able to manage it.  (It’s not that I never read nonfiction.  I’ve mentioned before that I read nonfiction books for a living — well, a part-time income, anyway.  That tends to leave me longing for fiction in my spare time.)

5.  Read more fantasy.  I love the genre; I’ve been a fan(atic) since elementary school (thanks to C. S. Lewis and Lloyd Alexander.)  But in recent years, I’ve read very little new fantasy other than new releases by my favorite authors… and since several of those are no longer with us (R.I.P., Anne McCaffrey, David Eddings, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Madeleine L’Engle, among others), I need to find some more authors to love.

One of the reasons I haven’t been reading as much fantasy is that I’m just not into dystopian fiction, vampires, werewolves, or zombies (especially zombies –ick!), and those have been dominating the new releases recently.  (I make an exception on the vampire thing for Deborah Harkness’s All Souls trilogy, which is amazing.)  But there is other good fantasy out there.  I just have to find it.

6. Blog more consistently.  I’d like to be more consistent with writing reviews and other posts for this blog.  I wrote 166 posts last year.  I could set a specific goal — 200 posts, or something like that — but for now, I’m just going to leave it at “more consistent.” 

And now for the more specific goals:

7.  Finish Kristen Britain’s “Green Rider” series.  I’ve read the first two books.  It’s the sort of fantasy I usually love, and I’ve been enjoying them, so I’m not sure why it’s taking me so long to get through them. 

8. Start Naomi Novik’s “Temeraire” series.  My daughter loved the audiobook versions of these, and swears I will, too.  The premise is great — alternate-history fantasy set during the Napoleonic Wars, with intelligent, enslaved dragons as the “air force.”  Cool!

9. Read Cinder.  And the sequel.  Before a third one comes out (if it does.)  Because everything I’ve heard about Cinder has been positive, and the cover is awesome… and I’ve been meaning to read it since I first heard about it.

10. Read at least one of Juliet Marillier’s “Sevenwaters” books.  This is one of those series that has been making me feel guilty for avoiding it.  I don’t even know for certain why I’ve been avoiding it.  I started the first book years ago, at a time when I really didn’t have the time or patience for a long, slow, rich novel — so naturally I didn’t finish it.  My parents gave me the first four books two years ago, and I’ve been meaning to start them again, but I never get around to them.  The more time goes by, the more embarrassed and guilty I feel I am that I haven’t gotten to them.  So this year, I’m finally telling myself “Enough.  Just read the bloody things already!  You’ll probably like them.”

Oh, and one more: This year, I’m going to update the blog template.  I may have to experiment a little with designs until I find one I like;  I want something that both looks cleaner and reflects the blog’s name and theme.  Stay tuned! 

(Edited to add: I’ve already adjusted the blog design. Apparently the changes are retroactive at least through the beginning of this year, so whatever you see here is the newest iteration.) 


So what’s your number-one reading goal this year?  And which book or series are you planning to embark upon in 2013?

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