Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Bookish Resolutions

1. Review books right after finishing them. #1 book/blog resolution. Hands down. I have a notebook of handwritten commentary about ten books that I’ve read in the last month, and still haven’t reviewed! This need to change asap.
2. Use Paperback Swap more/Keep my PBS lists updated. I go through phases where I get 10 books a month, and then the next month, 1. I’d like to take advantage of this “cheap” and easy resource more!
3. Shop more at Indie bookstores. This is much easier to do in NYC than anywhere else I’ve ever lived! I regularly shop in Strand and Books of Wonder. Sadly, where my parents live there is one indie bookstore in a 6 town radius. And it’s really a toy store that sells a few childrens books. In my midwestern home town? I can’t think of ONE.
4. Read 100 books in 2011. I *think* I can do it! I’m already on my 5th!
5. Read at least 10 books that I already own, and purchased pre-2010. I have sooooo many older books just languishing on my bookshelves.
6. Read more “physical” books. After buying my kindle, I went a little nuts with the e-books. In NYC it’s impossible to lug a 400+ page book around with you all day, so I use my kindle constantly. The (pre-kindle) purchase weeks when I was busier with my photography (carrying tons of equipment, while traveling on foot), I read next to nothing. I’d like to use the kindle for travel, and read more book books while at home.
7. Read on the subway more. This goes along with #6. I’d like to get back into reading more (books or e-books!) during my commute, and listening to my iPod less.
8. Read more classics. Pretty sure the last classic I read was in high school. Which was ten years ago.
9. Buy less books. I tend to go overboard and buy ten books at a time. And then only read half of them. Planning my book purchases in advance seems to help a lot.
10. Go to BEA. I never know what my schedule will be like in advance, since I mostly do freelance work. But I’d really like to make time to go to BEA this year. Especially since it’s in my hometown! : )

Top Ten (Old) Books I Resolve to Read in 2010

I’ve been so busy pretending it’s still the holidays and speed-reading new books, I’ve forgotten to blog! To help get back in the swing of things, I’ve picked ten books I’ve been “putting off” reading, as part of The Broke and the Bookish’s Top Ten Tuesday meme! Yes, I’m well aware today is Wednesday. Just this once, I’m going to cheat. I’m new at this! : )

#1 and 2: Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre. I’m kind of embarrassed to say I’ve never read either of these. I absolutely adore the Pride and Prejudice movie with Keira Knightley. And think the upcoming Jane Eyre film looks spooky good. I even bought P&P three or four years ago, and never read it! I grabbed my copy from my apt. when I was in NYC for NYE, and ordered a special annotated copy of Jane Eyre, which should be at my door tomorrow. I’m excited to read more classics!

#3. The Stand by Stephen King. This probably has the most potential for failure. I love Stephen King, and enjoy long novels. But I’m a bit weary of this one. 1,000+ pages may just destroy me.

#4. Incarceron by Catherine Fischer. A book I picked up about a year ago, started, then forgot about. I’ve heard so many great things since, and I definitely prefer reading books before they become movies. In before Taylor Lautner destroys the fandom!

#5. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr. I’ve never had so many friends tell me “Don’t read it, it’s terrible!” about a book before. Yet I see dozens of reviewers I respect and admire giving this high ratings. I don’t expect it to read like Shakespeare. So I’ve decided I’ll give at least the first book a chance this year. (Especially considering one of the people who told me not to read it said The Hunger Games wasn’t worth reading…)

#6 Anything written by John Green. I own a first edition of The Abundance of Katherines that I bought back when I worked at Barnes and Noble. In 2006. Why I haven’t yet it, or any of his other books yet (considering I live with a roommate who is a total John Green fan girl) confuses me.

#7 The Anita Blake series by Laurel K. Hamilton. Another thing I’ve been warned away from reading. A lot of fans say the series goes downhill, and crashes straight into porno territory after ten books or so, but I’m willing to give at least the first part of the series a chance. I’d like to throw in the Merry Gentry series too, while I’m at it. I used to own book one, but sadly it (along with about 700 other books I owned) was a casualty of our house fire in 2009.

#8 Going Bovine by Libba Bray. Another “Wait, why haven’t I read this yet” book. I heard Libba talk enthusiastically about this book back in 2007 at a signing for The Sweet Far Thing. Then I promptly forgot about it.

#9 A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. Another book that’s been on my TBR pile for over a year. Pretty sure I’ll be watching the new HBO series based on the books, and I’m betting reading this first will mean I’ll understand it a LOT better.

#10 The Fever series by Karen Marie Moning. I refuse to start this until the last book, Shadowfever comes out at the end of this month.

Runners Up: The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Wuthering Heights, More “classics” in general, and the 50 or so random older books laying around on my bookshelf that have been feeling neglected the last four or five years.