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ladybusiness2019-03-08 06:47 am
spindizzy) wrote in ladybusiness2019-03-08 06:47 am
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Eight Book Minimum: Goals for 2019! (08/03/19)
Hello my darlings! We made it through 2018, and I'm proud of everyone who tried to meet their goals despite 2018 being four hundred years long and actively trying to stop us!
Today, belatedly, as is apparently the tradition, I'm going to be talking about how I did in my goals for last year, and what my reading goals are for next year!
Read 180 stories, of which 90 must be prose: 228, of which 118 were prose! — Well, I definitely smashed this! My end total was 228, including short fiction; not including short fiction, it was 168. That’s... That’s pretty good, I think! And I ended up reading 118 prose stories if you count short fiction, or 58 if you don’t! That’s maybe not as many as I wanted, but I’ll be honest, 58 prose books was more than I expected! Yay, character growth!
Read 12 non-fiction books: 7/12 — Well, I got halfway there with this. I was really hopeful about this goal, but I think by the end of the year I just couldn't face the idea of reading anything involving actual real humans suffering, regardless of how long ago that was. I read some good things this year – and I discovered that I do actually quite like memoirs and biographies, which I hadn't really known before! I knew that I was more interested in the details of people's lives than I was battles and weaponry, but I hadn't quite followed that through to its logical conclusion. I guess that’s good knowledge to have when planning my reading for next year!
#getouttamydamnhouse (Read 50 books that I'd borrowed from libraries and other people): 25/50 I didn't quite manage this one with actually reading all of my library books, but I have managed to return most of them to the libraries from whence they came! That’s LIKE completing my goal.
#unofficialqueerafbookclub (Read 50 queer narratives): 71/50 I beat my modified goal! Yaaaaay! I'm glad I changed it, and I'm glad I did better than I thought I would, but I still like it's a little low.
Read 200 stories, of which 100 must be prose. I managed to get through 168 books last year! Not counting short stories! So I figured... If I got THAT close to 200 in 2018, Year of the Dumpster Fire, why not up the ante, just to see if I can do it? I think it's the prose bit of this challenge that I'm going to struggle with, because I have a shedload of manga RIGHT THERE and I am weak, but I have so many good prose books just WAITING for me! Right there! In my house! Which leads nicely to...
#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks: Read 100 books that I acquired before 2019. I know, I know, usually this is a "Read your library books!" challenge, but I'm going to be honest with you: I haven't actually got that many out right now. I'm mainly working in academic libraries at the moment, so I've had fewer opportunities to glom onto new library books! Obviously, I should take this opportunity to start whittling down the massive piles of books in my house before I end up in a library and twenty books mysteriously fall onto my library card. [Edited to add: In the time between my drafting this post and actually making it live? Twenty books have mysteriously fallen onto my library card.]
Read 12 non-fiction books — I'm better prepared this time! I have a stack of history books and biographies that I've been meaning to get around to for ages, and THIS YEAR I am finally going to read them! *determined*
#unofficialqueerafbookclub: Read 75 queer narratives. I'll be honest with you, I've been a little disappointed with my showing of queer books for the last few years, but the tracking doesn't lie! So next year, I would like to go harder into it, and try to read even more queer stuff. (Or at least figure out what I've been reading that isn't queer, because seriously how does this keep happening?)
... Also I’m one of the people who is knitting a book blanket this year, so I guess that counts as a book-related goal for 2019!
And, to bring this back to books: here are some books that I'm excited to read in 2019!
#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks
The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson — I was so excited to read this when it first came out, and I managed to get a copy and just never got round to it! But this year, I'm ready. I'm prepared. I'm going to read epic poetry in poetry form instead of prose! This is exciting!
A Hope Divided by Alyssa Cole — I really enjoyed An Extraordinary Union, although I know very little about the time period, and I've been meaning to read the sequel ever since! Black Civil War scientist and her escapee lover! That sounds amazing!
Chameleon Moon by RoAnna Sylver — You know what's a good thing to keep on hand when the world's on fire? Hopeful dystopias, where people care about each other and try to help each other even when the world is literally collapsing around them. I wasn't in the right state of mind for it last time I tried to read it, but I think I'm in a state where I can accept that hope is a thing again.
Non-Fiction
Books on Fire by Lucien X. Polastron — I bought this book years ago and I enjoyed every second I spent reading it, but also it made me feel too many things so I could only ever read it in small bursts! It's about the destruction of libraries throughout history, and I just had so many opinions about archaeologists destroying the things they were supposed to be studying that I had to stop!
Inseparable by Emma Donahugue — Q: Susan, wasn't this on your list last year? A: My heart wasn't ready! It's the same problem that I had with Books on Fire, where I'm so invested in the subject matter that I have to keep putting the book down so that I can feel it better. I just! We're here. We've always been here, and if someone breaking down how queer women have been in literature for centuries doesn't bring tears to your eyes, I don't know what I can say to explain why Inseparable makes me so happy.
Hunger by Roxane Gay — I've not actually read any of Roxanne Gay's published writing before, but I've liked what I've seen of her social media presence, and it turns out that she's written a memoir that specifically talks about self-image and weight and food, s I am absolutely here for that.
#unofficialqueerafbookclub
Sweet Blue Flowers Volume 2 by Takako Shimura — The creator of Wandering Son did a manga about queer girls trying to make it through school, with all of the attendant drama that goes with it! The ending of the first volume was really sad, so I'm hoping that this volume leaves the protagonists... Maybe okay?
Transcendent 2: The Years Best Anthology edited by Bogi Takács — It's an anthology of trans, non-binary, and genderqueer fiction! Some of which is by authors I know of and like! This is the coolest thing!
Any Old Diamonds by KJ Charles — New KJ Charles! New KJ Charles! And this one has jewel thieves which means heists and the complicated family stuff that has to come with a son hiring jewel thieves to rob his father!
So that’s what I’m aiming for and that’s what I’m excited about. How about everyone else?
Today, belatedly, as is apparently the tradition, I'm going to be talking about how I did in my goals for last year, and what my reading goals are for next year!
Goals for 2018:
Read 180 stories, of which 90 must be prose: 228, of which 118 were prose! — Well, I definitely smashed this! My end total was 228, including short fiction; not including short fiction, it was 168. That’s... That’s pretty good, I think! And I ended up reading 118 prose stories if you count short fiction, or 58 if you don’t! That’s maybe not as many as I wanted, but I’ll be honest, 58 prose books was more than I expected! Yay, character growth!
Read 12 non-fiction books: 7/12 — Well, I got halfway there with this. I was really hopeful about this goal, but I think by the end of the year I just couldn't face the idea of reading anything involving actual real humans suffering, regardless of how long ago that was. I read some good things this year – and I discovered that I do actually quite like memoirs and biographies, which I hadn't really known before! I knew that I was more interested in the details of people's lives than I was battles and weaponry, but I hadn't quite followed that through to its logical conclusion. I guess that’s good knowledge to have when planning my reading for next year!
#getouttamydamnhouse (Read 50 books that I'd borrowed from libraries and other people): 25/50 I didn't quite manage this one with actually reading all of my library books, but I have managed to return most of them to the libraries from whence they came! That’s LIKE completing my goal.
#unofficialqueerafbookclub (Read 50 queer narratives): 71/50 I beat my modified goal! Yaaaaay! I'm glad I changed it, and I'm glad I did better than I thought I would, but I still like it's a little low.
Goals for 2019:
Read 200 stories, of which 100 must be prose. I managed to get through 168 books last year! Not counting short stories! So I figured... If I got THAT close to 200 in 2018, Year of the Dumpster Fire, why not up the ante, just to see if I can do it? I think it's the prose bit of this challenge that I'm going to struggle with, because I have a shedload of manga RIGHT THERE and I am weak, but I have so many good prose books just WAITING for me! Right there! In my house! Which leads nicely to...
#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks: Read 100 books that I acquired before 2019. I know, I know, usually this is a "Read your library books!" challenge, but I'm going to be honest with you: I haven't actually got that many out right now. I'm mainly working in academic libraries at the moment, so I've had fewer opportunities to glom onto new library books! Obviously, I should take this opportunity to start whittling down the massive piles of books in my house before I end up in a library and twenty books mysteriously fall onto my library card. [Edited to add: In the time between my drafting this post and actually making it live? Twenty books have mysteriously fallen onto my library card.]
Read 12 non-fiction books — I'm better prepared this time! I have a stack of history books and biographies that I've been meaning to get around to for ages, and THIS YEAR I am finally going to read them! *determined*
#unofficialqueerafbookclub: Read 75 queer narratives. I'll be honest with you, I've been a little disappointed with my showing of queer books for the last few years, but the tracking doesn't lie! So next year, I would like to go harder into it, and try to read even more queer stuff. (Or at least figure out what I've been reading that isn't queer, because seriously how does this keep happening?)
... Also I’m one of the people who is knitting a book blanket this year, so I guess that counts as a book-related goal for 2019!
And, to bring this back to books: here are some books that I'm excited to read in 2019!
#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks
The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson — I was so excited to read this when it first came out, and I managed to get a copy and just never got round to it! But this year, I'm ready. I'm prepared. I'm going to read epic poetry in poetry form instead of prose! This is exciting!
A Hope Divided by Alyssa Cole — I really enjoyed An Extraordinary Union, although I know very little about the time period, and I've been meaning to read the sequel ever since! Black Civil War scientist and her escapee lover! That sounds amazing!
Chameleon Moon by RoAnna Sylver — You know what's a good thing to keep on hand when the world's on fire? Hopeful dystopias, where people care about each other and try to help each other even when the world is literally collapsing around them. I wasn't in the right state of mind for it last time I tried to read it, but I think I'm in a state where I can accept that hope is a thing again.
Non-Fiction
Books on Fire by Lucien X. Polastron — I bought this book years ago and I enjoyed every second I spent reading it, but also it made me feel too many things so I could only ever read it in small bursts! It's about the destruction of libraries throughout history, and I just had so many opinions about archaeologists destroying the things they were supposed to be studying that I had to stop!
Inseparable by Emma Donahugue — Q: Susan, wasn't this on your list last year? A: My heart wasn't ready! It's the same problem that I had with Books on Fire, where I'm so invested in the subject matter that I have to keep putting the book down so that I can feel it better. I just! We're here. We've always been here, and if someone breaking down how queer women have been in literature for centuries doesn't bring tears to your eyes, I don't know what I can say to explain why Inseparable makes me so happy.
Hunger by Roxane Gay — I've not actually read any of Roxanne Gay's published writing before, but I've liked what I've seen of her social media presence, and it turns out that she's written a memoir that specifically talks about self-image and weight and food, s I am absolutely here for that.
#unofficialqueerafbookclub
Sweet Blue Flowers Volume 2 by Takako Shimura — The creator of Wandering Son did a manga about queer girls trying to make it through school, with all of the attendant drama that goes with it! The ending of the first volume was really sad, so I'm hoping that this volume leaves the protagonists... Maybe okay?
Transcendent 2: The Years Best Anthology edited by Bogi Takács — It's an anthology of trans, non-binary, and genderqueer fiction! Some of which is by authors I know of and like! This is the coolest thing!
Any Old Diamonds by KJ Charles — New KJ Charles! New KJ Charles! And this one has jewel thieves which means heists and the complicated family stuff that has to come with a son hiring jewel thieves to rob his father!
So that’s what I’m aiming for and that’s what I’m excited about. How about everyone else?