I don’t have a lot of reading plans for this year, but I’ve got a couple of things I want to tackle.
First, I’m going to finally read Tom Jones (more on this tomorrow).
Secondly, I’m going to re-read the first twelve Spenser novels by Robert B. Parker—I’ve been wanting to re-read the series for a while now, and I’m going to force it this year. I used to read the entire series over a three-day weekend each year, but once I got married, my wife seemed to want me to interact with her for those 3+ days, and I only sporadically read individual volumes since then. It should actually work out pretty well this way, I do one a month (should have no problem fitting that in) which allows me to cover the best of the series, ending with a transition point to the series.
Thirdly, I’m part of the Book Blogger Novel of the Year Award Panel. You’ll hear more about that later.
And that’s about it—otherwise, it’s just read whatever seems interesting that I can get to.
I’m tweaking my approach to Reading Challenges this year. Bookstooge asked in a comment section a few months ago why I did these things* and it got me thinking about it—I’m tired of just doing the “How Much of X Have You Read?” Challenges—they really don’t do anything for me other than getting me to track stuff that I don’t need to. I prefer the ones that make me think of book selection differently than I usually do—preferably the ones that have some sort of interaction between participants.
* Yeah, it may take me longer than it should, but I do try to respond to everything.
The two exceptions to this are the Goodreads Challenge, which takes no effort at all and the Library Love Challenge—yeah, it’s largely a “how much” challenge, but there’s good interaction over on Goodreads, and I like the idea of celebrating Libraries anyway.
So, here’s what I’m going to be up to:
The Fourth Annual Library Love Challenge
Hosted by Angel’s Guilty Pleasures & Books of My Heart.
The Third Annual While I Was Reading Challenge
Ramona Mead’s got some great categories this year, and while the Facebook group isn’t super-active, it’s an interesting little group. I’ve had plenty of fun with this challenge the last two years and figure I’ll keep it going.
I saw this one while blog hopping recently, and it looked like fun. Similar to the above, but it’ll stretch me in different ways.
I’m supposed to tag 5 people to go along with this…hmmm….Okay, I challenge kerrimcbooknerd, Witty & Sarcastic Book Club, happytonic, Kelly Curtis, and brainyjaney. You all should give this a shot.
Similarly, I saw this on Twitter a week or so ago and it also struck a chord.
So, some fun ways to track reading and think about what I’ll read, and some moderate goals. Leaving 2020 for a lot of “whatever seems like a good idea at the time” kind of reading.
All this needs to be taken with a grain of salt, obviously. Maybe a salt lick. Remembering all too well the poet’s lines:
| But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane, In proving foresight may be vain: The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men Gang aft agley, An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, For promis’d joy! |
James Bailey, author of 
