Reading Goals 2015
My 2015 reading resolutions have been bouncing around in my head for the last month or so. Yesterday I spent some time refining them and putting them into words, and this seems like the logical place to document them (and hold myself accountable).
I think my overall life resolution for 2015 is to really think about how I prioritize things. To that end, I'm including the thought process behind these. A friend of mine recently mentioned having to "check her motives" before she undertook a task that might affect someone else. This should only affect me, but it still seemed like a good practice.
I broke it down to three goals.
1. My personal library: to own fewer books on 12/31/15 than I do on 1/1/15
The original idea was to own no more than 10 more books on 12/31/15 than I do on 1/1/15, but then realized that I could do better than that. Actually, I think it was a conversation with my sister, who thought that the "no more than 10" was kind of giving myself room to cheat. I resisted, but ultimately there's no reason I can't have a net reduction. (I didn’t track last year, but a quick estimate is that I was up by 20 from 1/1/14 to 12/31/14.) This also led to a discussion of why I need to own so many books at all. While she made good points, and acknowledged that some books would have to stay because of an emotional attachment, the idea of getting rid of all my books made me twitch and she backed off.
What does this accomplish? having less “stuff,” letting go of internal commitments that do nothing but make me anxious, and reducing spending. (Note/acknowledgement: While this goal supports reduced spending, this is not a limit on how much I spend on books. I can buy, as long as I also give away and/or sell.)
Strategies:
2. Make the anvil smaller
Some things will be off my self by the end of the year. This means reading them, or decide that I probably never will.
3. Strategize Book Club participation
I couldn’t decide if my book club-related goal would be an “at least” or “no more than.” I realized that it’s a decision between increasing commitment or reducing anxiety - and I need to do the later.
Strategies:
I started implementing some of these things already, and some of them were inspired by plans I already had. It's partly a matter of staying on a path and thinking about what I want to get from my reading. It shouldn't be a numbers game or a competition. Obviously, it still is a numbers game, to some extent, because there has to be a way to measure progress, but the numbers here are all about reducing pressure. These should all be achievable. I just need to relax. I'll let you know how it goes.
I think my overall life resolution for 2015 is to really think about how I prioritize things. To that end, I'm including the thought process behind these. A friend of mine recently mentioned having to "check her motives" before she undertook a task that might affect someone else. This should only affect me, but it still seemed like a good practice.
I broke it down to three goals.
1. My personal library: to own fewer books on 12/31/15 than I do on 1/1/15
The original idea was to own no more than 10 more books on 12/31/15 than I do on 1/1/15, but then realized that I could do better than that. Actually, I think it was a conversation with my sister, who thought that the "no more than 10" was kind of giving myself room to cheat. I resisted, but ultimately there's no reason I can't have a net reduction. (I didn’t track last year, but a quick estimate is that I was up by 20 from 1/1/14 to 12/31/14.) This also led to a discussion of why I need to own so many books at all. While she made good points, and acknowledged that some books would have to stay because of an emotional attachment, the idea of getting rid of all my books made me twitch and she backed off.
What does this accomplish? having less “stuff,” letting go of internal commitments that do nothing but make me anxious, and reducing spending. (Note/acknowledgement: While this goal supports reduced spending, this is not a limit on how much I spend on books. I can buy, as long as I also give away and/or sell.)
Strategies:
- Books set aside for Half-Off Books on 12/31/14 DO NOT COUNT towards total on 1/1/15.
- No need to count books on 1/1/15. Track income and output (gifts received/gifts given/purchased/sold to Half-Off/donated/anything else).
- “Shit or get off the pot” counts. Moving a book from shelf to sell/donate pile - WITHOUT READING THEM - counts, but only if they also come off the goodreads “to read” list. (My sister pointed out that the "but only" actually speaks to the second goal, but this goal does include reducing internal pressure to read what I have.)
- Use the library. I’ve actually been pretty good about this for the past three years (20-36 books per year), using the library mostly for book club selections and series that I know I won’t want to re-read. (Sometimes I buy the first book just to remember that I want to read the series.)
2. Make the anvil smaller
Some things will be off my self by the end of the year. This means reading them, or decide that I probably never will.
- Infinite Jest. On my shelf for 15+ years. Gigantic. Should be determined by 6/30/15. Chances are that if I don’t read it with a book club (scheduled to start it in January, and spread it over a few months), I probably won’t read it at all.
- At least one series/series starter. I have 23 books on my shelf that are the first book of a series. (I should probably find a way to document when the “series” is just two or three books, and which series are finished vs. still have unpublished volumes. And what about things that are more of a collection than a series, like Sherlock Holmes or Flavia De Luce? I have no idea what I think/how I feel about those, but I don’t need to figure that out today.) I will never read all of these series.
- Reduce goodreads goals. Yes, I hit 50 for each of the last three years, but at what cost? goodreads doesn’t track re-reads, so someday it might look like I didn’t hit the goal (so I’ll lose the ribbon on the graphic and that’ll just be frustrating). I shouldn’t have to prioritize short (or children’s) books just to reach an arbitrary goal. I shouldn’t feel anxious about re-reading an old favorite just because it won’t count the same. I’ve been keeping a goodreads bookshelf for each year, which is a better measure if I feel the need to count numbers, but I still shouldn’t push for 50. I have to remember that part of the reason I passed 50 in 2012 was that I was unemployed for a few months. In 2013, I happened to discover some YA that was fast and engrossing. In 2014, I pushed myself to read 12 books in December because I was trying to meet a goal. (And I didn’t quite meet it. Since the goodreads challenge counts things for the year they’re marked as finished, my brain has interpreted the annual goal as being “first reads.” As there were only 47 books that I read for the first time, I don’t quite feel like I met the goal. Never mind that my actual total was 64 books, I was still trying to push for 3 more books for the year.)
3. Strategize Book Club participation
I couldn’t decide if my book club-related goal would be an “at least” or “no more than.” I realized that it’s a decision between increasing commitment or reducing anxiety - and I need to do the later.
Strategies:
- No pressure when it comes to the Bibliophile Support Group (Facebook-based book club). I have to remember that the biggest sell for this group is that you can always join the discussion later. I’ve been burned too many times, reading a book that I didn’t like, on a deadline, even though hardly anyone else did. The people who vote for the damn books don’t always read them, which has made me angry. No, I definitely don’t need to think of this one as a commitment.
- NOCWBC comes first. The North Orange County Women’s Book Club is the in-person book club I joined when I moved back to California (about two years ago). All else being equal, decision-making skews in favor of hanging out with people who are already my friends.
- Don’t be afraid to miss NOCWBC. If a new club picks something already on the to-read list (Infinite Jest), and NOCWBC is reading something unattractive (East of Eden is just as long), try the other group. Plenty of people belong to multiple groups.
- Keep in mind that part of the benefit of book clubs is that they increase exposure to different genres/authors, but it’s also supposed to be fun. It’s possible to abandon a book and still have something to say about it.
I started implementing some of these things already, and some of them were inspired by plans I already had. It's partly a matter of staying on a path and thinking about what I want to get from my reading. It shouldn't be a numbers game or a competition. Obviously, it still is a numbers game, to some extent, because there has to be a way to measure progress, but the numbers here are all about reducing pressure. These should all be achievable. I just need to relax. I'll let you know how it goes.