First of all, a big Happy New Year to my readers! Thank you to everyone for sticking around, whether you’ve been reading my blog since it started, or have just joined us. As has become a bit of a tradition in the New Year, I like to start by sharing my bookish New Year’s Resolutions on the blog – so here they are for 2017.
- 2017 will be the year that I finally conquer Netgalley! In 2016, I vowed that I’d get my rating to 80%. It’s currently at 81%. I need to read 36 more books – or at least be honest whether or not I am going to read them – to reach 100%. After that, I will feel happy using Netgalley again, but right now I don’t feel I can request anything from there, and haven’t in about a year.
- Make more use of my local library system. As I started doing towards the end of 2016. Even if my local library doesn’t have much, I can order books in from around the county and pick them up from down the road, which is really handy.
- But also read from my own shelves. At my last count, I owned 190 unread books, many of which I was desperate to read at time of purchase, yet still haven’t touched. Oops.
- Write more reviews. I think part of my problem with reviews is that I’ve only been reviewing review copies – so I have this association with deadlines, time pressure etc. I have occasionally reviewed books when I’ve really wanted to express how they’ve made me feel, but not that often. So from now on, I’m trying to review books that make me feel strongly – whether positive or negative – no matter where they’ve come from.
- Continue to be decisive about which books I accept for review. Maybe a contrast to the above point – but I don’t want to read and review everything. I simply don’t have time, especially when there’s so much out there that appeals to me. Over the past year I’ve become more and more confident about turning down books for review that just don’t appeal to me, or if I’m just not feeling in the mood, or if I’m feeling a little pressured. My blog, my time, my decision.
- Bring Fantasy Friday back! I miss that feature.
- Become more active within the blogosphere again. I think I probably say this every year, but I used to be so good at commenting on other people’s blogs. Now, not so much. I’d like to be able to do that again.