The Readers discussion

Simon wrote: "So what books are you looking forward to? What resolutions have you made? What other bookish things do you have planned? We've shared ours now it's your turn."

I recorded about my 2017 reading goals but my biggest one is to read books from places on the borders or fringes.. refugees, vacated homelands, immigrants, indigenous groups, lgbtq, etc. It's been great so far!!

I am excited for 2017. With being in school for the last 7 years my desire to seek out titles of my own interest had unfortunately diminished. However, at the end of 2016 over the Christmas break I forced myself to pick up a book that my lovely girlfriend, who is in Australia for a while, was reading so that we might share in the journey. As a result, I have made it one of my top priorities to ensure that I continue to make time for reading for enjoyment. I have already went through 9 titles in 2017 with a goal of reaching 30. I am currently reading "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett and I am blown away. The detail, the historical knowledge and the all-around ability to tell an engaging tell makes this an incredible story. I have "World Without End" on deck (the next one in the Kingsbridge series) and admittedly the book I look forward to most currently is Follett's forthcoming third installment in the series.
I also look forward to taking in the works of Khaleid Hosseini and "All the Light we Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr.
Happy reading and all the best in the year to come friends!

I am trying to read more of the books I own. I read exclusively from my own shelves in January, but I am trying to pull some titles from my shelves each month.

I have an ongoing challenging of reading books that are in translation, by authors from countries other than America, and/or set in another country.

I hope to share some good reads with everyone here.

My 2017 list so far:
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg
A Separation by Katie Kitamura
Transit by Rachel Kusk
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

This year I'm not doing a formal challenge. I'm going for the books already on my shelves. I'm also going to work my way through The Henry Family Series by Herman Wouk in hopes that I'll get a better understanding of WWII. So far I'm loving it!

The Winds of War

War and Remembrance

Im keeping things as simple as possible in 2017 knowing that the more challenges I take on etc, the less likely I am to succeed.

So 2017 is all about enjoying the books i already own for the first six months of the year.

Best read so far has been Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey

Welcome back, Simon and Thomas!

I am trying to read more books from my shelves and from my local library. I will continue to try to read authors that I have not read before, and to read authors from other nations and cultures.

I am currently reading The Gustav Sonata and loving it.

I am really looking forward to Lincoln in the Bardo and Pachinko

I had a lovely reading 2016.

My favorite was Just Mercy.
Other top books were:
Eileen
The Trouble with Goats and Sheep
A Meal in Winter
Homegoing
Days of Abandonment
News of the World
Nutshell
The Underground Railroad
Mischling
Under the Skin
Smaller and Smaller Circles
The Green Road
In the Country
The Secret History of Las Vegas
Sleeping Giants
The Turner House
Restoration
As We Are Now
My Name is Lucy Barton

Always lots of plans and a long TBR. These are currently top of mind:

Books I didn't get to in 2016:
The Nix
Moonglow
Behold the DreamersCommonwealth
The Essex Serpent

Books I really want to read and don't know why I haven't yet:
Station Eleven
Americanah
The Secret History

Classics:
East of Eden
The Age of Innocence

2017 Releases:
Little Fires Everywhere (I loved Everything I Never Told You and can't wait for this one)

I have Autumn and Lincoln in the Bardo from the library. These may be more experimental than I like but we'll see!

I had a decent 2016 but hoping for even greater reads in 2017.

So far this year I've read:
Exposure
Hag-Seed
History of Wolves
All the Birds in the Sky
The Patriots
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Persepolis
The Johnstown Flood
and a couple others

On top of the TBR:
Lincoln in the Bardo
Swing Time
Autumn
The Lauras
Bleak House

Anxiously awaiting:
Ill Will by Dan Chaon
A Line Made by Walking by Sara Baume ( I LOVED Spill Simmer Falter Wither)
The Essex Serpent

The only reading challenge I'm participating in is the A to Z challenge at Litsy. I'm not setting any goal for the number of books I want to read. I did that last year and at the end of the year I ended up reading short silly books that I didn't really enjoy just to reach my goal of 52 books. I think it may be smarter to set a goal of pages read so that I can take on chunksters like Bleak House.

Good idea regarding pages vs titles April - I have a few 500-800 p. books that tend to linger on the tbr when I'm pressed for challenge time, because I can finish 3-4 shorter books in the same amount of reading time!

I am trying to read from my own shelves, which means I will have to ban myself from the library once this present batch is read.

I also want to read specific types of books from my shelves - ones I have bought recently, ones that have been recommended by people on a certain podcast, ones that have been published recently.

I am also reading a few about China in preparation for our trip and I would like to read a couple of books published in 2017. I know that contradicts my main focus but I rarely read really new books and I want to give it a go.

So far I have been overwhelmed with over-time so have only read 4 books of which 2 were from my shelves: one published in 1987 and the other in 1968!
Even when I make my challenges simple I can't stick to them :0(

My husband and I have given up our apartment in town and now live only in our 500 sq ft cottage. I gave all my books to different charities and my goal is to only read library books. I belong to 2 libraries (don't tell) and have a huge TBR list. I always have an audiobook going and am currently listening to Moonglow. I don't worry about how many books I read and thanks to this wonderful group, I have so many titles to look forward to. I also have given up finishing books that are not working for me, the latest being Born to Run...even with Bruuuuuce narrating.

Gail wrote: "My husband and I have given up our apartment in town and now live only in our 500 sq ft cottage. I gave all my books to different charities and my goal is to only read library books. I belong to 2 ..."


Is this real life? I want a cottage. Except I want my books. Doh!

Gail wrote: "I belong to 2 libraries (don't tell) ..."

Shhh. I belong to two different libraries too. : ) But I also have a lot of owned books on my shelves.

Kudos to you for going totally minimalist!

1. At least one non-fiction book per month (this is a carryover from 2016.) 2. Get a BOTNS Book Bingo blackout. 3. Give myself "permission" to stop reading a book if I'm not enjoying it (but must get to at least page 50. I've already exercised this one once!) 4. Read more short stories and poetry (but I'm not going to put an exact number on it - just make an effort.) 5. Do a Goodreads review for every book I read.
Goodreads goal is 60 books.

A more general goal is to read more of what I want to read - like Simon mentioned in the podcast. Last year I was in four book clubs and constantly reading what I *had* to read instead of what I wanted to. This year that's going to change!