2018 Reading Plans

With those reflection posts out the way, it’s time to make plans for the new year. My hope is that it’ll be a thrifty year, reading-wise, because my plan is to mainly read more of the books I own and to buy less books. I’d like to cut the amount I spent on books last year by more than half.

Surprisingly to me, I did pretty well on my reading goals in 2017 and managed to complete 4 of the many reading challenges I participated in. Usually, I’d only successfully complete 1 or none. I’ve also been debating whether or not it makes sense for me to participate in reading challenges since I’m never an active participant in them. I do not create separate posts for updates or follow up on the hosts’ blog to state my progress or engage in conversations on Twitter about what I’m reading for the challenge and how well it’s all going. I basically just state that I’m participating then go off and do it all on my own (or not do it, which is usually the case) like the loner I am.

However, I do find it fun to state that I’m participating and make TBRs (though I never follow them) so….I’ll continue with my mad process. Speaking of which, here are the reading challenges I’ll participate in this year and the books I’ll read for them:

Goodreads reading goal

45 books

Last year’s goal of 40 books was stress free, so I’d like the same for this year. I think about 40-50 books/comics is my reading average for the year. It’s the amount I’m certain I can complete.

Books I really want myself to read this year but I probably won’t

8 books

A few of these were on my list for last year, like:

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Which I’m still eager to read, especially after attending an event in 2017 where I listened to Adichie discuss her creative origins. It was inspiring and I admire her so I’d like to finally give her work a try.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

It’s a popular classic and much praised for the writing and the character Humbert Humbert. I’m so curious about it. I have a strong feeling that it will remind me of Carolyn Kepnes’s You because of how creepy the narrator is.

Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye

The whole point of reading Jane Eyre back in 2016 was so I could read books inspired by it, specifically this one. But I have yet to pick this book up. Everyone says it’s great, so I’m still interested in reading it. Another book inspired by/based on Jane Eyre that I wanted to read is Jean Rys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. Eh… I want to read it, but am not enthused to do so, which is why it has fallen off this list.

Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection, Vol. 1 edited by Hope Nicholson

An anthology of comics that features indigenous storytelling. This also has been on this list since 2016 and I’m mad at myself that I’ve yet to read it.

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

A humorous horror novel set in an Ikea store (or one similar to Ikea). This is one I really want to read and will most likely definitely read, so it’s here so that at least 1 of these books will be read.

Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng

A fantasy novel about missionaries visiting the fairy world to convert the fey to religion. I learned of it from a review I saw on booktube and it interested me because it deals with religion and because the description the reviewer gave made me think of The Bear and the Nightingale.

The Golden Fool by Robin Hobb

The second novel in the Tawney Man trilogy. This is here to ensure that I’ll read at least 2 of the books on this list so I won’t feel too bad about myself. I’ll buddy-read this with Emily from Embuhlee liest. We’ll probably start soonish.

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

This book is always on my TBR lists, so it’s here too.

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Challenges I’ll participate in

2018 TBR Pile Challenge

I’m subbing out the Beat the Backlist Challenge, which I did last year, for the TBR Pile Challenge. The goal of both is the same, but the TBR Pile Challenge is more in tune with what I want to achieve.

For this challenge, participants have to make a list of 12 books they’ve owned for at least 1 full year, so books must have been published in 2016 or earlier. I’ll mix it up and will only count books I bought in 2016 or earlier. I always consider books I bought in the previous year as new; so in this year, all the books I bought in 2017 are considered new (which is a lot of books). My plan is that the challenge will help me minimize my physical TBR and weed out some books (the ones I don’t like).

Here are the 12 books I hope I’ll read for it:

We’re also allowed 2 alternates in case what we’re reading sucks and we just can’t go on with it. Mine are:

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2018 Library Love Challenge

I participated in this one last year and quite liked it. It sorta helped to encourage me to seek out my library for books. My plan for this year is to rely more on the library for new books and other books I want to read but don’t own.

Last year, I managed to read 22 library books, making me a Dewey Decimal Reader, according to the levels for the challenge (totally forgot to mention that in my reflection post). This year I’ll shoot for 24 books so I can be a Thrifty Reader, which would be great because my 2018 is all about being thrifty.

Currently, I have these two checked out from the library:

(I’m tempted to purchase an e-book of Angels & Demons because OMG! so good and I doubt I’ll complete it in time to return it to the library and write my thoughts on it.)

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Book Riot 2018 Read Harder Challenge

I participate in this every year, but have never completed all the tasks. I’m pretty sure my progress will be the same this year, but I hope to do better and complete at least 12 of the tasks. That’s about half of them.

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Other stuff

Umm… I failed at my Classics Reading Challenge, but I’m still continuing with it to push myself to read some classics (thought the motivation isn’t really working). I read no classics last year, but I’d like to sneak some in this year, so I hope to complete at least 3 of these. I’m already working on The Iliad.

I did pretty well on my 2017 Read Diverse Books Challenge. I don’t see an announcement for one in 2018, but I’ll try to diversify my reading in 2018. I won’t keep tabs on this, but will just encourage myself to do it.

I’ll also like to participate in the Horror Reading Challenge, if there’s one for this year, but I haven’t seen an announcement. I didn’t do so great with this challenge last year, but I might surprise myself this year and read 5 of them. Here are the horror books I plan to read:

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So those are my reading plans for 2018:

Goodreads = 45 books

Books I must read = 8 books

TBR Pile Challenge = 12 books

Library Love Challenge = 24 books

Book Riot Read Harder Challenge = 12 books

Classics Reading Challenge = 3 books

Horror Reading Challenge = 5 books

Hmm… I think it’s doable.