Reading resolutions 2009

Well I didn't do very well on my one reading resolution for 2008, taking part in the Back to History Challenge. That called for reading 12 specific books, of which I read about half. I started some others that didn't take (Dorothy Dunnett and Can't Find My Way Home, for example,) but essentially I didn't make it. So this year I will pick a number of vague goals with as few metrics as possible.

Goal # 1: Read more books I received as gifts. I did better in 2008 that I have in years past, I think there are only 3 or 4 books that I have received as gifts in 2008 that I have yet to read. That said, I have over a foot of new books on my shelf. In fact I have placed them in their own special section so I can be reminded that I need to read them.

Goal # 2: Read more science fiction. I LOVE science fiction and yet somehow didn't read much this past year. While not as challenging as keeping up with music, I feel like if I take my eye off the genre it runs away from me. Time to get my head back in the game.

Goal # 3: Make progress on fantasy novels. I am currently midstream on the Song of Fire and Ice, the Malazan Book of the Fallen, the Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, and the Gentleman Bastard Sequence, as well as a few more I am probably forgetting. As far as I can tell, if you write fantasy novels you have to write as many as you can and they must have a grandiose overarching name.

Goal # 4: Find another horror novelist that I like. In the past few years I have read a fair bit of horror, most of it not to my liking. I did find and quite enjoy Joe Schreiber and Sarah Langan. Here's hoping another will appeal.

Goal # 5: Support the local book culture. Buy at the local shops, attend literary events, support the library by boosting circulation numbers as high as I can.

These are open ended enough that I should be able to spin whatever I do into a success story, or so I hope.