Any plans?

    I'm always interested in any reading plans, goals or resolutions which people are making at this time of year, so do please share them with us here if you have any.

    Is anyone resolving to read mostly from their own shelves, and buy fewer books than usual?

    Are you planning to be a more regular library user?

    How about genres? Are you going to venture into new territory, or explore more fully ones with which you are already familiar?

    Will location play a significant part in your reading, discovering the literature of a certain country or area, say?

    Is there an author whose works you want to read more of this year?

    Are you looking to join a reading group (if so, we have one!), or perhaps you'd rather read completely freely and independently?

    I'd love to know if you have any plans - vague or specific - in mind, or are you just going to see what comes, book-wise, and follow any trail which looks inviting?

Comments

[Sue]

Following your recommendation of The Runaways I shall be reading that and more Elizabeth Goudge. I'm trying to find nice second-hand hard-back copies as the new paperbacks have pretty dismal covers and the older 1970s paperbacks have quite appalling covers. I'm very influenced by covers I'm afraid.

I'm also going to be reading a lot of Persephones as I was given a subscription for my birthday.

And finally I am reading Dorothy L Sayers. I have begun with The Nine Tailors.

[Bride of the Book God]

I am taking part in the Double Dog Dare which means reading only books I owned at midnight on 31 December 2014 for the next three months. During the same period I'm going to avoid buying new books (unless they were pre-ordered). Also hoping to read more Joyce Carol Oates.

[Cornflower]

Sue, that all sounds perfect! (I like a good cover, too.)

[Doulton]

I am planning to read more biography, history, and non-fiction in general. I also plan to do a lot of rereading. I am re-reading Tolstoy's WAR AND PEACE right now. I have read it before so I can pick it up and put it down in the interstices and still get a lot out of it. Thank you for the question.

[Lory @ Emerald City Book Review]

I'm trying to read only from my own shelves in January -- new reads, rereads, review copies, as long as they are in the house already! After that, I plan to follow my nose as usual, but I'd like to read more nonfiction than I usually do (I gathered a ton of recommendations from Nonfiction November), and I'd also like to catch up on some current fantasy and children's releases, which I read hardly at all last year. I'm looking forward to the reading group too.

[Cornflower]

Good luck with your plans, Doulton - your reading looks nice and 'meaty'.

[Cornflower]

That seems like a good mix, Lory.

[Cornflower]

Best of luck with the Dare - a good plan for many of us, I should think!
Joyce Carol Oates is on my (lengthy) 'I've never read...' list.

[Lina]

I love Elizabeth Grudge and Joyce Carols Oates. I'm going to follow my nose and I'm open to suggestions and ideas.

[Susan in TX]

In 2014, I read more from home than I have in previous years and unearthed some gems. I also did better at reading as I bought (that doesn't mean I read them all, but I read at least 1/4 of the ones I bought last year). I've been trying to figure out a limiting book buying plan that I would stick to, so I'm experimenting this year with forcing myself to read 3 from the TBR before buying 1. We'll see how it goes. I know better than to say I'm not going to buy any, and the only one concerned about my book buying at my house is me, which doesn't help. So, more reading from home! I do allow myself books for reading groups, etc. but I'm going to try and make myself earn even those this year by reading down my own shelves between. :)

[Cornflower]

I hope you'll find some excellent things, Lina.

[Cornflower]

I know lots of knitters make a similar plan to yours, Susan, regarding their yarn purchases: so many projects with wool they already own 'allow' the acquisition of a new skein or two.
The urge to store up our pleasures, whether in book form or craft materials, is a strong one for many of us, it seems.
Good luck with your plan, but above all, good reading!

[Spade & Dagger]

I'm trying to avoid books which are part of a series. I'm a bit of a completionist, so even when the series starts to lose its' appeal, I feel compelled to finish it ASAP.
I'm going to keep using the library - that's where you find the little gems while browsing (and it keeps a very valuable service going) and I'm really going to try to read more from the first part of the last century.

[Carol S]

I'm smiling at these references to TBR piles (mountains here) and yarn stashes though I've made huge inroads into both during this Christmas period. Enormously pleasing! And I resisted buying more wool yesterday when we went to John Lewis to buy a new (never to be repeated?) suitcase to replace a much travelled one, one wheel has finally twisted right off and zips are weak.
I have exciting new patterns to knit but am determined to leave starting them until current work complete.
I have a few novels and memoirs to read then I'm concentrating on writing from Australia to sort of match our soon to happen holiday there. Lots of riches...

[Joan Kyler]

I only plan to read as I always have: what I want when I'm in the mood. I would like to read more classics. I read a lot of them when I was young, but I've fallen into the easy to read mystery trap for the most part. But you know how one book often leads to another, and that's the way I prefer to read. No challenges, no book clubs for me.

Happy New Year!

[Cornflower]

All very sensible, Spade & Dagger.

[Cornflower]

You sound very disciplined, Carol.

[Cornflower]

Reading as the mood takes you is good! Happy New Year, Joan.

[Dark Puss]

I very rarely make plans for reading these days (other than what I have done with Victoria B) though with my non-fiction reading tending once again towards zero I think one plan would be to try to reverse that trend in 2015. I'm sure that the re-starting of the CBG (which I eagerly anticipate) will certainly help me in that respect and will broaden my reading horizons too as it did in the past. Still to do is to re-start on Proust and see if I can get onto the second volume this time! Otherwise I'm generally in the same camp as Joan Kyler.

[Anji]

I have no definite plans this year. I have always read what appeals to me at any particular time. But I am hoping to make some inroads into my TBR pile, which seems to be getting longer, not any shorter.

[Cornflower]

Good luck with Proust, DP!

[Cornflower]

The piles may get bigger rather than smaller, but writers, publishers, and bookshops will love us, Anji.

[Claire]

I'm a member of two book clubs and have a huge tbr pile so my plan is to try and find more reading time. (And perhaps buy less books.....) I notice among your "arrivals" is Rebecca Mead's "The Road To Middlemarch...." I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Having read Middlemarch and seeing that she was hosting a discussion this year at Edinburgh Book Festival I signed up. She was an eloquent and engaging woman and gave us a fascinating hour on Middlemarch.

[Cornflower]

"Middlemarch" itself is on my "I've never read ..." list, but I hope that's not a bar to full enjoyment of Rebecca Mead's book, which sounds very interesting indeed. I'd like to have heard her at the Festival but I was tied to the house in August and managed only one event.

[LizF]

I am planning to read more books from my own shelves this year as they are currently overflowing due to my tendency to acquire books far faster than I read them.
I say this every year so hopefully this will be the time I actually stick to it!
I'm also going to try and curb my library habit, particularly the use of the online request facility which is just too handy and usually results in large numbers of books all arriving at once - very stressful!

As for what I read, I hope to read more classics and more non-fiction as I read pathetically little of either last year and I have huge holes in my reading knowledge when it comes to classic authors compared with many bloggers and commenters!

Finally got the Margaret Forster My Life in Houses and read it over a couple of days whenever I could steal some time to myself. I thought it was wonderful and am now searching through my shelves for other books by her that I have acquired over the years!

[Cornflower]

So glad you liked the Margaret Forster, Liz.

[B R Wombat]

Last new year I resolved to make 2014 the year I bought no books as I have a book buying tendency. Instead I read from my shelves and from the library. I'm delighted to say I managed only to buy books as gifts and very few even of them. I have this resolve to thank for the delight of rereading Middlemarch and also The Real Charlotte, amongst others. And I lasted until 3rd January 2015 before indulging in a new book. However, I don't know if there will be any reading related resolutions this year. I'll have to wait until the glow of last year's success fades.

[Cornflower]

Well done!

[Claire]

Rebecca Mead tells her Middlemarch story so well I'm sure you'll enjoy it without having read the novel.

[Cornflower]

The novel has been sitting on the shelf behind me for goodness knows how long, and it's not for lack of interest that I haven't picked it up yet. Maybe this will be the year!

[Annabel]

I always start the year with reading from my TBR piles - I'm hoping to last until the end of March doing exclusively that and buying less. I'm also planning to read the whole of the Anthony Powell Dance to the Music of Time sequence during the year.

[Cornflower]

Good luck with the Powell, Annabel, and should you wish to read them, here are Lindsay's posts on the series: http://booksdofurnisharoom.typepad.com/books_do_furnish_a_room/anthony_powell/
(he has read it many times).

[Dixie Lee]

I'm going to try to reread all my original Virago paperbacks (in the black and green covers) whether as free Kindle books or as physical books. They've been on shelves for 25 years now, and I think that once I have reread them they can find new homes. (Of course, I reread Mrs Oliphant's Carlingford Chronicles and am now reading more of her books that I missed the first time!) I have more books than I can reread given my life expectancy, and I need to let some go. Of course, I will read new books too, especially from the library. My Goodread "To Read" list is almost up to 700 books....

[Cornflower]

I, too, have a very long 'to read' list, but no doubt it could be edited, and maybe the resulting 'focus' would be helpful.
Your plan sounds like a good one, Dixie Lee.

[Sue]

I've just written a post detailing my reading plans for 2015 here. Feeling very excited by my pile of books waiting to be opened.