I'm linking up with The Broke and the Bookish for another Top Ten Tuesday.
Last year I shared my bookish goals for 2015, and I recently shared how I did with those goals. Now it's time to think about the new year, and the folks at The Broke and the Bookish have upped the ante, so it's not just goals but resolutions for 2016! Here are mine.
1. I resolve to read all the unread books on our bookshelves.
There are a dozen books I've gotten through PaperBackSwap or as gifts that I just haven't read yet. I want to get them read this year so I can decide whether to keep them or send them on. These are Stolen, George, Faith Unraveled, Borderlands/La Frontera, The Whole Life Adoption Book, Dear Mister Rogers, Does It Ever Rain in Your Neighborhood?, East of Eden, A Prayer for Owen Meany, The Discoverers, Walking on Water, Letters from a Martyred Christian, and Adoption Parenting.
2. I resolve to read all the Catholic books on my to-read list.
I am hoping to go to World Youth Day this year, so it's a good time to get caught up on these books. I want to read The Church of Mercy by Pope Francis (particularly as he's named this "The Year of Mercy" and I'm not sure I know exactly what that means); Philippine Duchesne: A Woman with the Poor, which is about the saint I chose for my confirmation name because she was French but about whom I know very little; and With Burning Hearts: A Meditation on the Eucharistic Life, a recommendation from a friend.
3. I resolve to read a novel in French.
I spent 2015 doing daily French lessons on Duolingo to brush up my skills, and one of my personal goals for 2016 is to participate in regular French conversation groups. However, it's been a long time since I read a full book in French. My hope is to read Translation Is a Love Affair in the original French, as it's not a very long book and some reviews said it seems to have lost something in translation.
4. I resolve to read some highly rated books I'd never heard of.
The Goodreads list of books with a 4.2 rating or above introduced me to a number of books I'd never heard of before, but which have 1,000+ ratings that put them in the highest rated books on the site. These include The Way of Kings, Ficciones, The Winds of War, All Creatures Great and Small, and Imperium.
5. I resolve to read some classic psychology books.
I see these books pop up occasionally in discussions about people's behavior or therapy techniques, and I want to read them for myself rather than getting just the bare-bones summary from an article. The ones I have in mind are Feeling Good, Will I Ever Be Good Enough?, and Emotional Vampires.
6. I resolve to reread some Agatha Christie books.
It's always galled me that I tossed the list I made in middle school of the 60+ of her mysteries that I'd read, because now I can't remember which ones I've read and which I haven't (with a few notable exceptions, like And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express). I want to start over and read her books again, plus rate and review them.
7. I resolve to read some World War I books.
At one point I was trying to get my great-grandfather's WWI memoir published, but I got discouraged by the rejections, and I think to write a better query letter I need to be more familiar with what's already out there. On my list are Good-Bye to All That, which is a memoir, and The Guns of August, a highly rated, Pulitizer Prize-winning book about the war.
8. I resolve to read more books that require waiting for hard copies.
Although I organize my to-read list based on my current goals, I will often read something next just because it's currently available on OverDrive. Some books I want to read require making a request via our university's ILL system or even (gasp!) buying the book. I don't want those books to linger on my to-read list forever, especially as some are out of print and will become increasingly hard to track down. Books like Celebrating Silence, Friendship at the Margins, and Winter of Fire were recommended to me this past year but I didn't read them because I couldn't easily get a copy at the library.
9. I resolve to read multiple books published in 2016.
When Goodreads' 2015 awards rolled around, I'd read a measly one book in the pool, though plenty of them were on my to-read list. This year, I want to make it a priority to read books the same year they're published!
10. I resolve to read books published in 2014 and 2015.
See #9. There are too many books from the last two years that I never bothered to get my hands on, and I want to get caught up on the books everyone's been recommending.
What are your book-related resolutions for the next year?
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