Top Ten Tuesday: 2015 Book Resolutions

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top ten tuesdayTop Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the lovely people of The Broke and the Bookish – the number of bloggers who participate is simply crazy and I always find interesting lists there, so go check it out.

This week’s topic is 2015 resolutions and I decided to focus on my blog and reading (I never really keep the personal ones so I’m not sharing!) :)

  1. I want to succeed at my reading challenges. I’ve never done any before as I only started blogging this May, so I kept it simple – and signed up mostly for fun & to meet new people.
  2. I want to read more classics. I often feel like I fall for hyped-up books, only to feel disappointed and unsatisfied with the substance of what I read. I used to read a lot of classics in high school and at the Uni, so I’d like to make a habit of this again.
  3. I want to finish more series. I’m a serial series reader. It’s obvious that if I hate the first book in a series, I won’t go and buy the next one, but there are series I really liked but never got around to finishing.my-bookshelf
  4. I want to update my blog design. A better way to put this would be: I want someone (my brother!) to do this because my design “skills” are nonexistent and it’s just embarrassing that I make my meme headers using MS Word and Paint.
  5. I want to comment more on other blogs, interact more and use social media to their full potential. I really want to take the time to do this because there are so many wonderful posts out there every week. I also feel like blogs are made to be read, despite the fact that I write mine primarily for myself!
  6. I want to read more non-English books. Since my mother tongue is Slovenian I should really make an effort to read more Slovenian books. And I studied French as well as English, so I want to read some French books in 2015 so I stay in touch with the language.french-books
  7. I want to be better at managing my ARCs. I don’t request that many and I never get approved for all of those I apply for but I want to limit myself to those books I’m really interested in. This will, hopefully, result in less “meh” reviews on this blog. I also want to get my Netgalley ratio up (to at least 75 %) so I better start reading!
  8. I want to read less fluff. Perhaps my current situation (having a 4-month-old) means that it’s easier for me to read lighter books, but I know that reading so much romance is like eating too much chocolate. It never ends well.
  9. I want to continue posting three times a week. This seems like a manageable frequency for me and I really like it.
  10. I want to write more discussion posts. I feel like they’re harder to write than book reviews (and obviously harder than memes where the topics are known in advance), so I always appreciate them more when I read them on other blogs.

srcek

 What are your resolutions for 2015? 

Do you keep yours? :)

  • Great set of goals! I just started blogging this year as well, in November actually. I have signed up for a couple of challenges. I hope I can finish them.

    • Kaja

      Hi, Cynthia, thanks for stopping by! :) Congrats on starting a blog and doing challenges – I hope you succeed!

  • I’m seeing read more classics and about reading more genres as being a big thing for blogging goals this week. I like that you want to read more books in different languages, I think being able to speak other languages is amazing and reading is one of the best ways to keep yourself up to speed with language as it were.

    I like how you want to read less fluff, I am completely with you on that, but at least you have the excuse of a child, I’m just looking for an easy book to read because work has fried my brains.

    Good luck with your goals :)

    • Kaja

      Thanks, Becky! :)
      I think I’d be reading fluff even if the baby wasn’t as demanding – I just feel like reading things that make me feel good and there’s nothing wrong with that. I imagine that after a trying work day, there’s nothing better than a good romance to make you feel better. It’s comfort reading at its finest (and healthier than comfort food, if you think about it) :)

  • Great list! I also want to try and finish some more series that I have pending! I started to work on that in 2014 and was so far successful, I just have SO many to read. I hope you achieve your goals in 2015.

    • Kaja

      Hi, Chrissi!
      Well, it’s good to hear that you managed to do that – I feel like the sheer number of series I’ve started is quite overwhelming!
      Thanks for the comment!

  • Seems like some great goals to me! I want to write more discussion posts as well, but completely forgot to add that to my own top ten! And reading more classics should also be on my list. I guess those two are in my top twelve then. ;-)

    • Kaja

      :) I’ve been quietly adding items to my list for the whole day as I read other bloggers’ TTT posts! There are SO MANY things to be done in the next year!
      Thanks for stopping by, Anne, and Happy New Year!

  • Your list looks very much like mine!
    I have started so many series in the past year that I still haven’t got round to finishing!
    I also want to do better with my reading challenges. I aimed to read 100 books in 2014 and only got up to 84. Hopefully I will do better this year, as will you!
    Good luck with your resolutions and Happy New Year! :)

    • Kaja

      Hey, Hannah, so glad you stopped by! :)
      This is my first year of blogging so I have no idea if I’ll manage to fulfill my challenges or not… I sure hope so! :)
      Happy New Year to you, too!

  • Great goals! How fun that this will be your first year of reading challenges!

    • Kaja

      Yes, I hope so, too! :)
      Thanks for stopping by, Joy!

  • Nice list!

    Reading books in other languages is something I wish I could do more of. I tried to get through The Little Prince in the original French this past year, but only made it through a few chapters. My French is rather rusty from disuse.

    I really should read more classics. I read a whole bunch years ago, when I was in my early 20s. I enjoyed many of them, so I’m not sure why I’m hesitant to try any now!

    • Kaja

      My French is in danger of becoming rusty – this is why I want to read more French books :( It would be such a shame to throw away years and years of studying only because I was too lazy to keep it up!
      Thanks for the comment :)

  • These are some great goals, so best of luck with them!
    I read a lot of classics up until early this year because I was still at university doing English Literature, but since graduating I’ve read hardly any, so I’d love to start reading more again too. And although I usually tend to read series one after the other (I finished the entire A Song of Ice and Fire series in literally a matter of weeks!) recently I’ve found myself starting series and not reading the next books for ages, so I think I’ll try and finish some of them soon too.

    • Kaja

      I like to read series as a binge, too, if it’s possible – but I tried to do that with Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series (it has 14 800-page parts) and I got stuck at book 6 because it was simply too much of one world.
      Thanks for the comment, Laura! :)

  • Good luck with your goals; they seem very well thought out! I love that one of your goals is reading more non-english books. It’s one I might try to take up myself. I grew up speaking both French and English, but haven’t read a French book in years which is a shame. Thank you for the inspiration!

    • Kaja

      I’m glad you think so, Ashley. I really enjoy reading British and American books but I sometimes feel like I’m missing out on a whole world of good literature.
      Thanks for stopping by! :)

  • I read better books all around this year than last because I too managed my ARC requests a bit better. That is a good goal.

    • Kaja

      I guess it’s a beginner’s mistake, requesting too many ARCs. I have now learned my lesson :) (I hope!)
      Happy New Year!

  • I’m the same with series — a serial series starter and then I like it, buuuut… Yeah.

    I’ve found even some classics aren’t immune to being overhyped, too. But there’s so many gems out there. I never thought I’d love War and Peace so much, for example! Good luck with your goals.

    • Kaja

      Ooh, yes, War and Peace. Prince Bolkonsky was one of my first literary crushes (along with Mr. Darcy, of course). I think classics are hyped-up by definition, having survived decades or centuries as the most read literature – but liking them is still a matter of personal taste.
      Thanks for stopping by, Nikki! :)

  • I didn’t make a list of book/blogging resolutions this year, but I think reading more non-English books sounds like a great idea. I have unread books by Yasmina Khadra sitting on my shelf too, gotta get around to them!

    • Kaja

      I feel like I should diversify my reading a bit – and choosing a different language is an easy way to do so, especially since English isn’t my mother tongue. The US/UK book publishing is so overwhelmingly large that getting my hands on English books is really simple, so I tend to prefer them over French (and my English is way, WAY better than my French…).

      Thanks for all the comments, Miriam! :)