Happy New Year! I hope your 2023 reading is off to a good start. As I do every January, I have listed below some reading resolutions for the year ahead. I don’t do very well with numerical targets and goals or anything that restricts my reading choices too much, so these are just some loose plans to help shape my year of reading.
* Finish my Classics Club list. There are only sixteen books left on my list and I’ll be reading at least one of them this month (Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell) so I think this is very doable! My deadline for completing the list was actually last November, but I’m not really bothered about that; I would just like to finish the remaining books and have already started to prepare a new list!
* Re-read some old favourites. I say I’m going to do this every year and then hardly ever do it! I used to re-read a lot, but now, with my endless TBR, there always seems to be something else that needs to be read first.
* Resist the temptations of NetGalley. After a lot of hard work I have finally got the number of review copies waiting on my NetGalley shelf down to single figures! NetGalley is a great source of new books, but you can very quickly find yourself requesting more than you can keep up with. While I’m sure I’ll still request some, now that I’m down to a manageable number I want to focus more on books I already own.
* Make some progress with my Reading the Walter Scott Prize project. I did quite well with the 2022 shortlist, reading three out of the four shortlisted titles, as well as some others from the longlist. However, there are still lots of books from previous years’ shortlists that I haven’t read yet, so I’ll try to read some of them this year. I’ve already discovered lots of great new books and authors through this particular prize and am looking forward to discovering more.
* Continue with some of the series and trilogies I’ve started and never finished! There are so many of these I couldn’t even begin to list them all here, but a few I would particularly like to go back to are Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series, Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series, Ellis Peters’ Cadfael mysteries and Elizabeth Jane Howard’s Cazalet Chronicles. There are many, many more!
* Take part in the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge and Read Christie 2023 (although I won’t do the Christie challenge every month as it can become too much). Apart from these two year-long challenges, I will be joining in with any shorter reading events and themed weeks/months that appeal to me.
* My final resolution is the same every year – make every book I read a potential book of the year! That means being more ruthless about abandoning books I’m not enjoying (something I find very difficult) and being more selective about which books to pick up in the first place.
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What about you? Do you have any reading resolutions or plans for 2023?
She Reads Novels 
Nope. No plans. Life has been full of obligations for years. Serendipity rules!
Yes, I think sometimes having no plans is the best plan of all!
Good plans! And totally agree about abandoning the books which aren’t doing it for us… ;D
I find it very difficult to abandon books, but it does seem silly to struggle through something you’re not enjoying when there’s so much else to read!
Margaret’s Serendipity rules is/are very appealing, but I’m too weak-willed to abandon a habit of being ruled by the winds of change, namely attractive prompts and challenges! So I shall do the ones that suit my current inclinations and ignore the rest! I only feel guilty about my Classics Club list which I reduced by just one title last year — the shame of it! Thank goodness I never succumbed to the siren calls of NetGallery…
Serendipity sounds appealing to me but I do like a little bit of structure to my reading so will be taking part in some of the various events and prompts throughout the year too. NetGalley is a good way to discover new books and authors but can contribute to your TBR becoming dangerously out of control, so probably best to avoid it!
Nice plans, they seem doable and catered to your reading ability and style.
I share two of resolutions, rereading and your last one which you stated perfectly. Quit books that are not cutting it is also difficult for me.
The Classics Club I did my 5 years, read a lot of classics, now I still keep my list and add on to it whatever I read, or prospects. I loved that challenge.
Thanks. I hope we can both find time for some rereading in 2023 and get better at abandoning books that aren’t working for us!
I want to have more time for rereading too so am definitely going to resist the temptation to buy or borrow every book that I see reviewed by bloggers. I never used to have a TBR before I joined this community😃😃😃
I never used to have much of a TBR either – that only happened after I started blogging! I’m determined to find time for some rereading this year.
So enjoy hearing about everybody’s reading plans although I’m so terrible at following through with them that I don’t do them anymore. Books falling off the shelf into my arms at the perfect time rules my reading life. I like the flexibility of yours and love the last one!
I’m not very good at reading to deadlines and targets, so I like to keep my plans as flexible as possible! I hope you enjoy whatever you read this year.
I don’t plan things out like a lot of reading bloggers seem to do. Also, I hardly ever take books from Netgalley anymore. It’s the ebook thing. I guess I just sort of muddle my way through the year.
I don’t mind reading ebooks and I’ve discovered some great books on NetGalley, but it can be too easy to request more books than you have time to read.
That’s true.
Great Resolutions! Trying to re-read old favourites is always a challenge with all the new books but try we must! Wishing you a great 2023 in every way !
Thank you. I do love re-reading my favourite books but it can be hard when there are so many tempting new books too! I hope 2023 is a better year for you!
I posted my list of challenges in which I’ll participate in 2023 yesterday. Good luck to you and I hope you achieve all your goals!
Thank you. I hope you can achieve everything you want to achieve with your reading in 2023 too!
Good luck with your reading plans and wish you a great reading year ahead! NetGalley and Edelweiss have been adding more to my reading list than I can handle as well, so being a little more restrained is something I plan to do this year. But I will try and join in various reading prompts and challenges (from the existing TBR and owned books) as much as I can.
Thank you. I don’t use Edelweiss but I have definitely been receiving more NetGalley books than I can manage to read, so I will be more careful with my requests this year. I’m looking forward to joining in with some of the events and challenges throughout the year too!
A great set of resolutions! I totally agree about NetGalley – it’s wonderful to be able to access so many new releases, but it’s far too easy to request more than can possibly be read! I’m down to 11 outstanding, and would like to stay at about that level. Good luck with all your challenges – abandoning the books that aren’t grabbing you gets easier with practice, I find…
I have 12 books on my NetGalley shelf at the moment and have read 3 of them which just need to be reviewed. It’s the lowest number I’ve had for years and I’m determined not to let it climb up too much again!
Great reading resolutions! I especially like that last one about trying to make every book you read a potential book of the year. Good luck …and Happy 2023! 😀
Thank you – and happy 2023 to you too!
Great resolutions! I’ve cut down a bit on NetGalley and am at least pretty well keeping up with reading them month by month … My other resolutions are to get the print TBR down a bit and to read new hardbacks when I get them, so I don’t let them linger until the paperback is actually out! Have fun with your 2023 reading!
Yes, I’m hoping to get my print TBR down this year too. I always used to read new books more or less as soon as I acquired them, but now they sit on the shelf for years!
I’m making this a year without any specific goals – just general intentions like reading more of my TBR instead of going after the shiny new objects! It took me about 8 years to finish my classics club list so you are actually doing well if you finish this year
Avoiding specific goals is a good idea – less stressful and gives you more freedom with your reading choices. This is my second classics club list. The first one took just over 5 years, but I think this one is going to take a bit longer than that!