Bookish (and Some Non Bookish) Resolutions for 2018

Published on by theorangutanlibrarian

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

woohoo 2018.png
Literal stock photo 😉

So, like most of the population on New Year’s Day, I’m completely zonked today and basically want to huddle under my duvet until winter stops… which means it’s the perfect time to write some resolutions for 2018!! (cos we all know how well that tends to work out) Warning: it’s almost guaranteed I will forget about these in a month or two, but everyone loves a guilty book blogger, and these are guaranteed to make me nice and red-faced come next December 😉

Bookish:

number 1

10 More Books from My Challenging list

Yep, starting off with one that was on my resolutions last year. My list of challenging books is quite long (and always growing) so I can’t include all of them, but here’s a few that are top priority:

selection from challenging reading list.png

How’d this list get so cheery? 😉 No wonder I’ve been avoiding this list like the plague…

Also subheading: FINISH READING MAPS OF MEANING YOU LAZY SCHMOCK! (I read the intro and first chapter back in 2016, it’s getting a bit ridiculous now, no matter how hard it is)

number 2

10 Non-Fiction Reads

The great thing about this is a fair number of the books still on my challenging reading list are Non Fiction- so hopefully this’ll be two birds, one stone.

number 3

Delay putting a goodreads challenge on

So this is a complicated resolution- but last year I focused wayyy too much on how much I was reading- and a lot of that came from doing the goodreads challenge straightaway in January. Even though 75 was my goal *for the year*, I saw that and thought “challenge accepted” and proceeded to bulldoze towards that goal. To the point where I kept pushing the goal up-and-up-and-up before the end of the year. I wish I’d taken more time with my reading now and been a bit more relaxed in those opening months especially (cos right now I’m really experiencing burnout). That’s why my goal is not to put the challenge on for as long as possible (although I’m not saying to not do it at all, because I know that’ll be an impossibility)- I’ll say I get a pat on the back for every month I manage to have s(h)elf control.

number 4

5 Rereads

This goes back to trying to *relax* with my reading more (pahahaha, me? Relax? Good luck with that). I’m not going to push my luck- but I’d like to manage a similar number to last year.

number 5

Try and be More Organised with Reading Plans

You know, like have some sort of TBR. It doesn’t have to be official (let’s face it, it won’t be in posts cos *laziness*) still I should at least try to be a bit more organised. Especially since I’ve had a couple of ARCs in particular that I want to read and okay, I’ve been in  a slump for a month, but I still feel bad about it and LET’S GET ON WITH IT already! (Immediately after writing this, I scribbled down a list for January… so can I already count this as a success please?)

number 6

Try to Stop Reading Books You Know You Won’t Like

Yes, sometimes I’m guilty of picking up books where I think “this sounds so cliché and awful” annnd then proceed to read it anyway. Obviously you can’t avoid all bad books- yet sometimes I know I’m making a mistake. I just need to step away from the hype and back off from the trashy teen stuff. Hey future self: PUT IT DOWN.

Non Bookish:

number 7

Finish compiling notes from notebooks

This one is actually not that hard, considering I’ve done most of the legwork. I’ve basically been compiling notes from my notebooks (on the left is the ones I’ve done), for various different stories (not including WIP) that go back about 10 years. I’m down to the last three (on the right) and they’re only small, so this should be a doddle.

number 8

Finish that awful guitar for dummies book

guitar for dummies

Okay this also = do something about my awful, sporadic practising habits (I have a feeling I’m setting myself up for failure here)

number 9

Mumble bumble something about French…

Aka find some new way to practice French instead of just duolingo- which I’ve kinda tailed off with anyway (it’s really boring once you finish the course). Again, this is kinda a fun one- yet also one I will probably fail, cos I have other things I need to do this year… so we’ll see.

I’ve written a couple of personal goals down on this document as well (like get fit) (not actually on the list lol) so I’m aware of them when I go back at the end of the year and publicly shame myself for not doing it 😉

Okay- who else has New Year’s Resolutions you totally plan to not do? Let me know in the comments!

109 thoughts on “Bookish (and Some Non Bookish) Resolutions for 2018”

  1. Honestly, I keep my Goodreads Challenge kind of low because I don’t want to stress about it. It’s a fun way to keep track of what you’ve read, but I don’t want to feel pressured by it!

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  3. Last year I have read hardly any books, so my resolution for books this year was quite simple but effective: read more books lol 😂😂 Which seeing the amount of books I read last year shouldn’t be too hard 😂.
    Your resolutions sound pretty good, though I imagine number 8 is going to be the hard part. I hope you will manage that one, but I’m sure once you have set your mind to it, it will be as easy as pie 😀

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  7. Lol you know I think rereads are in my future cause there are definitely a couple I want to go back through. I would have this year but I promised myself no rereads though I did cheat once. It was a stupid promise. Good luck on the non fiction front! I still can’t bring myself to do that but the audiobook I plan to read is technically nonfiction?!? Good luck with your goals and Happy New Year!

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  9. I was literally just thinking about venturing back onto Duolingo but couldn’t decide on a language. Kinda tempted to try something weird but know it should really be Spanish or Italian. I keep starting various ones but never finish.

    Really like your bookish goals. I’m impressed you have a challenging books list. Mine is more a probably never gonna happen although I did look at Les Mis on my bookshelf today then thought nah, it’s really, really long.

    I do like the idea of getting more non fiction in. I’m quite bad for never reading any (I blame school).

    Your goals do look kind of achievable so best of luck with them.

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    1. I totally get that. I’ve been doing a bit of Spanish on it recently and I want to continue with that too, but I really need to sit down and learn the grammar properly if I’m going to progress, you know? I’d really like to do something crazy like Gaelic though 😉

      And thank you! hahaha it is quite long to be fair 😉 I can relate.

      I totally get that- I only started reading non fiction about a year or two ago- I really didn’t enjoy it in school or uni and never got good (readable) recommendations until recently.

      Thank you!!

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  10. Those are some good goals!

    Last year I unofficially wanted to read 150 books. This year, I’m backing it off to 100. With a bunch of Shakespeare, Dickens and one really big theological non-fiction book on my stack, I better slow down to enjoy and take in what they’re actually saying. Last year I felt like I grabbed all the pizza rolls and hamburgers off the buffet table and crammed them into my mouth. This year, I want to actually be cognizant of what I’m reading 🙂

    And please, for the love of all that’s holy, stay away from the trashy teen ya stuff!

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    1. Thank you!

      Yeah I think that’s very fair. I have the same feeling this year. I also read a lot more fantasy than normal last year, so apart from a few things I want to try/continue, I’m going to try and push up the number of classics. I think when I was at uni I read a lot fewer books, but they were harder, so that should change the numbers. hahaha oh my goodness I can relate to that analogy 😉

      hahaha I really need to 😉

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  12. Great goals! Trying my first Goodreads Challenge this year. I have a very long list of classics I want to get through but will probably only aim for about 3 for the whole year.
    Off of books, I really hope you make some headway with the guitar and/ or French!

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  13. These are some awesome goals for 2018!! Wow your challenging books list looks…challenging haha! I can see why you have left these ones. I am going to try not to stress out about the goodreads reading challenge, it’s amazing how much it gets into your head hey!! I hope you have a wonderful 2018 🙂

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  14. I feel you about focused way too much on how much book that I was reading.. I felt the same way to years ago, so last year I only set my reading goal is 50 and feel less pressure , eventough I end up reading 200 last year. I read book that I want to read not because I want to the number of my reading challenge increase

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  16. Awesome post! I think it’s a great idea holding off on the Goodreads challenge. I’ve made mine already but like you said it’s nice to have some time to just relax a bit. Maybe I’ll go change it LOL
    Happy New Year!! I look forward to your posts this year! Great resolutions!

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  17. That’s a lot 😀 I hope you are able to stick to your resolutions 😉 Or you know.. to maybe half of them.. for a couple of weeks 😀

    I want to do more Rereads as well this year, but it should be easy, as I already did it last year and loved it.

    ‘Try stop reading books you don’t like’ – LOL! But there’s always hope they might be good and our expectations aren’t that high anyways – I do that as well sometimes!

    Good luck on non-fiction. I am always spacing out when I try, so I gave up. It reminds me too much of school. I want my dragons, magic swords and action-packed adventures!

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    1. hehehe thank you- I see it being far more likely that I’ll do a couple for a couple of weeks lol 😉

      Oh brilliant!! 😀

      hehehe yes I definitely do that- but I also pick things up in the library, maybe even read the first few pages and think “I’m probably not gonna like this, am I?” But it’s often cos of hype or like I said, I’ve started reading and now I can’t stop 😉 Whoops!

      Thank you! hahaha I totally get that and tbh I’ve only started reading it in the last couple of years, cos I find it really tough (especially since there’s no dragons 😉 )

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  20. TRY TO STOP READING BOOKS YOU KNOW YOU WON’T LIKE… I think i’ll take that one for myself. Also, getting fit. Every year is a shame for not doing it. Buy hey, let’s dream i’ll do it for more than two months. Really liked this blog.

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  21. Yanno, I do that! I start reading a book and realize that I am really not into it, but I have to muddle through to the end. Why do I do that to myself?

    As for my NY resolutions, I want to come up with a new sandwich. I’ll post it should I be successful. I also want to read Life of Pi for the 100th time. And I too would like to maybe go through my notebooks and make some sense of all those notes I have. I want to make a giant pancake, I mean GIANT.

    I realize these resolutions are simple ones, but I figure when I slam dunk these puppies, it will give me the confidence to follow through on the bigger goals. Like writing lots more and running road races and meeting Vera Farmiga. Okay, on that last count, it’s more a fantasy than a resolution.

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    1. hahaha I know right- I’m glad I’m not the only one!!

      Now that’s a great idea 😀 And I *love* life of pi, so I approve of that plan 😉 And going through notebooks is really good. And omg I want a giant pancake now (always)

      hahaha I think it’s a great idea for goals to be honest!

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  24. Well, I’m one to avoid even bothering with New Year resolutions because we all know they get forgotten fairly quickly but these look realistic and doable so best of luck to you. 🙂

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    1. Aww thank you!!! ❤ You're so sweet!! (I should probably say something in French, but I'm tired and awful at it 😉 ) Thank you so much!! hehehe yes- there's a lot- I also have a ton in storage I'm done with 😉

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  27. You can always practice French with me, haha, I’ll help you 🙂
    I SO agree with you about the pressure of reading, reading and reading, especially when you have a goodreads challenge. we need to chill and enjoy the books we read instead of making books just numbers to check off the GR challenge 🙂
    Best of luck for all of your goals! xx

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  28. The good thing with us book bloggers is we don’t judge each others for the resolutions we forget 😀 I did not even try to come up with resolutions this year, haha! I totally understand what you mean about the Goodreads challenge. I wanted to wait a bit more and suddenty I put 70 as my goal, when I know 2018 is going to be busy, there will be books I’ll be working on that won’t count, and that quality means more than quantity… Damn! That site is bad bad bad!
    Hey, if you want French, you got me! xD I can help in any way you want!

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    1. hehehe absolutely! To be honest, I’m thinking that would have been a good plan now, cos there’s a few things on here I’m having serious doubts about now 😉 hehehehe I totally relate 😉
      Aww thank you so much!! You’re so kind! You know, funnily enough, you’ve indirectly helped me before just with bits of French on your site- but really- my French is embarrassingly bad!!

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      1. Glad my French touch can be of any help 😀 Darling, I’ve been there, my English hasn’t always been so perfect xD So don’t hesitate if you want to write to me in French, chat, whatever! Practice makes perfect! (Yep, the language learning happy me is excited haha!)

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  29. I hear you on the plan to slow down. I set my GR challenge to 52 last year because there always seemed a widget bugging me to set a challenge. Might have set it to 1 just as well. But the number of books you read shouldn’t drive my reading, it should be the quality.

    Good luck with your goals.

    Btw, your challenging books list looks great.

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    1. I completely agree with you- I think there were books I’d have enjoyed more last year if I’d been slower with them and I also don’t think I should have rushed so much to read more.

      Thank you so much!! 😀

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  31. Bonjour! I have a list of anti-resolutions, like stop setting so many goals because it stops you from enjoying the process of achieving them. I totally get what you mean about reading challenges, I had 64 books related to different ones last year, but with Netgalley and new releases and recommendations and discounted books and presents and trips to book stores I ended up manically trying to finish them off. Why do we put ourselves under so much stress? 😂

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  33. These are some great resolutions, and I’ll keep my fingers crossed you manage to keep them all until the end of the year. 🙂 I love your reasoning’s for delaying putting in a Goodreads Reading Goal and it kind of makes me wish I’d held off on mine a little longer, oh well, something for me to think about next year. Also I’d love to do more re-reads but there are just too many books coming out I want to read for the first time they tend to fall to the bottom of my to-read list. 🙂
    Great post, and again good luck with these resolutions! 😀 ❤

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    1. Thank you so much!! 😀 Hehe honestly, I don’t know if it’ll work, we’ll have to wait and see 😉 I completely understand that!! I definitely have done that a lot this year too- and there’s just always so many new books I want to read that it’s hard to do rereads.
      Thank you so much!! 😀 ❤

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  34. This is a great list! With the exception of number 6, much more specific as well. But, sometimes you need goals you can fudge. I really appreciate that there are both bookish and non-bookish goals on here (though I feel like 7 is still bookish on some level).

    I am a HUGE fan on DNF’ing books. you should never force yourself to read anything. Life is too short to read bad books. For sure.

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  37. My husband is a big re-reader but I am not. I should try to also include some rereads. I might start with Ready Player One before the movie comes out since that was a favorite of mine!

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  38. I like resolution number one a lot; keeping and progressing on a list of challenging books is a great idea.

    I’ve got a similar task to do with my notebooks too, starting to wish there was an easy way to digitise them and make them searchable. My hand writing is too poor for most OCR though!

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    1. Thanks very much! It’s worked for me before and I definitely recommend doing it 🙂

      hehe I completely get that! And gosh, yes, my horrible handwriting is one of the reasons I’m still working through all of my notebooks 😉

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  40. You have some great goals. I’ve not made a NYR for 30 or more years, but from this point on I will make an exception: to reduce the amount of plastic I buy/use and to be more ‘earth conscious.’

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  41. Great list… I really like the way you decide to go with the Goodreads challenge… I kept it fairly low as well and I agree- it’s so easy to get swept away with that tiny image on Goodreads… heh 🙂
    I am most intrigued with your ‘Challenging’ List… I kind of told myself to read more ‘big girl/boy’ books this year, more classics and some non fiction.. and I think I plan to be totally relaxed about reading this year… I’m just going to bend to my whims and see what happens… You know.. I can’t wait for the end of 2018 already just to see how you get along with your resolutions! 😀

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    1. Tahnk you! hehe I know right!!
      Ah well it’s on my goodreads if you’re looking for inspiration (though I’m thinking of changing the title to “ahh these books terrify me”) But yes definitely worth reading more classics and non fiction (come to think of it, probably best not to go straight for the list I have on GR 😉 ) Fair enough!! hahaha thanks!!

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  43. Hahahah awesome list of resolutions!!! So many too! I do hope you’ll be able to achieve at least 50% + of them. 😛 I like the non-fiction one though. There’s so much we can discover through them and reading some here and then could definitely be really insightful! Good luck on these resolutions!!! 😀

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  44. Good luck on your resolutions! And hey, they aren’t vague so your 2019 self will totally get them all. 🙂
    I totally feel you on the Goodreads burnout. That happened to me back in 2016. For me, it helped that I set a manageable goal for 2017, one I was sure I could meet. That way, I didn’t stress it but still ended up reading a lot.

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    1. Thanks! hahhaaha yes!
      Yeah honestly I only joined in with the challenge part of goodreads in 2016, but when I did it last year it was just a bit too much- also cos I kept pushing the goal up *all year* which made it harder and was a silly thing to do 😉

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  45. I remember when I first did my Goodreads Reading Challenge — I set it to 100 books and the beginning of the year was a whirlwind of nonstop reading. Reading should be enjoyable, and sometimes the pressure and time constraint of the GR Reading Challenge can taint that 😅 Good for you for pushing your GR Reading Challenge goals back! Hope you have an amazing bookish year!

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  46. Maybe you just need to find the right non-fiction book to get you hooked on them. That’s what it was like for me, now it read a ton of them, by my standards anyways. Maybe try reading some french comic books to help learn some more. My french is really rusty I was in french immersion right up to high school graduation, but I feel like I am loosing it so I have started getting french books out of the library to help bring it back.

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    1. Oh yes for sure- to be honest the last few years I’ve actually managed to read about 10 a year cos I’ve found interesting books I like (I could never finish a Non fiction book before, but now I can and I enjoy them) So it’s doable for sure. Oh that’s a good idea- thanks! And that’s cool 😀

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  47. I love that one of your goals is to read non-fiction books. I feel like I’ve been buying more and more non-fiction and reading a random chapter or two and then letting them pile up. Good lick with all of your goals!

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  49. Pingback: Monthly TBRs- To Be or Not To Be… – the orang-utan librarian
  50. Pingback: LOOKING BACK ON NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FROM 2018- SUCCESS OR FAILURE? – the orang-utan librarian

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