Happy New Year!

 

Isn't that a great quote? It makes me think about what goals and dreams I'd like to accomplish in my life. I like to dream big! For instance, someday I'd love to win the lottery, buy my own beach house, adopt a rescue dog, write a book, get married, go birding on High Island during spring migration, travel to Morocco, and see the Moai on Easter Island. 

But my actual goals for 2022 are much smaller, which means they're not quite as exciting as that dream beach house or that exotic trip around the world, but they are a little more attainable. And that's the whole point of setting goals each year, isn't it? My goals for this year:

1. Be more active! 

(Try a new sport like snow-shoeing or rock climbing, hike 50+ miles this year, and just have more fun.)

2. Worry less, and learn to live more fully in the moment.

3. Read the unread books sitting on my TBR shelf before buying any more.

4. Take more photos (and try to improve my digital photography skills).

5. Eat healthier. 

6. And do at least one thing that scares me.

What about you? What goals are you setting this year? Got lots of reading lists and plans? 

Here's hoping 2022 is a good year for all of us!

Happy New Year!

A bookish new year...

I've been thinking about what I hope to accomplish over the next twelve months, and what new adventures I'd like to embark on in 2017--from writing a novel, to trying something new every week, to possibly getting another stamp in my passport. But while setting New Year's goals and resolutions can be a little intimidating, deciding what my 2017 bookish goals will be is easy. See, I already have a list of books I want to read this year; a list that seems to grow with every book review I read. It's full of classics and other, more contemporary, works that I've been meaning to read for years, along with some recent non-fiction books, new authors, old favorites, unfinished series, unread books on my TBR shelf, and more books than I want to admit recommended to me by Goodreads. So, I have plenty to read in 2017. The only problem is that I'm easily distracted by the myriad of books I find at the library or in bookstores. Which is why I decided to sign up for the Backlist Reader Challenge.

Hosted by Lark at The Bookwyrm's Hoard, "the Backlist Reader Challenge is a year-long challenge for all those older books that have been piling up on your TBR pile and list--not just the ones you own, but the ones you've been wanting to read for awhile now."  The great thing about this challenge is that I can set my own goal and choose whatever books I want to read from my own TBR list. Which makes it a perfect challenge for me; so, even though I originally wasn't going to sign up for any reading challenges this year, I just couldn't resist this one.

My tentative goal:  10 books -- 5 that have been sitting on my TBR shelf for more than a year, and 5 that have been on my To Read list even longer than that.  And what are those books?

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Dance Night by Dawn Powell

Less Than Angels by Barbara Pym

Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Wash This Blood Clean From My Hands by Fred Vargas

Ghost Song by Sarah Rayne

Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian

We Hear the Dead by Dianne K. Salerni

The Secret History by Donna Tartt 

The Radleys by Matt Haig

(With one alternate in case my mood changes:  An Unwilling Accomplice by Charles Todd)

Happy Reading!

(And Happy New Year!!)

My bookish resolutions for 2015...

It's the first day of a new year ... a year that feels full of possibilities. What am I hoping for? Mostly little things. Like increasing my bird list to 150 species of birds (it currently stands at 139), and hopefully spotting my very first owl. I'd love another stamp in my passport (or maybe just a week spent at a beach instead). My friend is talking about starting a book club, which could be fun. I'm definitely planning on doing some more hiking this summer, and I'm determined to try something new (and hopefully fun) each and every month. I have a few bookish goals, too:

Read wide.

Read new.

Reread.

Complete a reading challenge, or two.

Get my TBR pile below 20.

And, most importantly, Have Fun!

What are your bookish goals for 2015?

Good luck with ALL your endeavors, 

and have a Happy New Year!

P.S. I turned in my last three library books yesterday...I've officially put the library on hold and plan to read from my own bookshelves the entire month of January.

Happy Reading!

My Bookish Resolutions for 2014...

"The difference between the person you are now and the person you will be in five years will be determined by the people you meet and the books you read." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

This quote got me thinking about the books I'd like to read, and the people I'd like to meet this year. I want to expand my horizons, try new things, risk failing, travel to new places, read new authors, participate in new reading challenges, dream bigger dreams, and have more fun. It's a new year, after all. Anything is possible.

I also want to keep blogging about books and life...at least two posts a week. I want to read more classics--I've already chosen 12 classics I hope to read in 2014. As for reading challenges, I signed up to participate in the What's in a Name Reading Challenge hosted by wormhole.carnelianvalley.com because it sounded like fun. I'm also going to try and read more non-fiction this year. And I hope to get my TBR pile, which currently stands at 28 unread books sitting on  my shelves collecting dust, down below 20. In addition to all of that, I want to make time to reread some of the books I love best. Whew! That's a lot of books! Wish me luck.

What about you? Made any bookish resolutions this year? Whatever your plans, goals, or dreams for 2014, I hope they all come true.

Have a Happy (and Bookish) New Year!

A Bookish Resolution

"There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag--and never, never reading anything because you feel you ought, or because it is part of a trend or a movement.  Remember that the book which bores you when you are twenty or thirty will open doors for you when you are forty or fifty.  Don't read a book out of its right time for you."                                                     --Doris Lessing

   This year, I'm making a resolution I know I can keep:  to only read books in 2013 that I want to read.  Because reading should be a joy, not a chore!

Happy New Year!