Your 2012 reading goals

**Tadhg** · 01-06-2012, 11:06 AM

Originally Posted by i_mmmchocolate

For 2012:

-I'd like to read two Faulkner novels (Light in August and As I Lay Dying).

-I'd like to finish, once and for all, two Bolaño novels that I started some time ago (2666 and Savage Detectives).

I finally finished 2666, and I definitely want to read Savage Detectives and The Third Reich now.

**Libaax** · 01-06-2012, 11:16 AM

Originally Posted by Slam_Bradley

I was being somewhat flippant, but not too much.

I usually end up reading prose for about 30 minutes a night before bed. It is 100% to escape dealing with representing criminals all day long.

Goals make it seem like a chore. And if I feel like I "need" to read certain things or certain amounts I get what amounts to "reader's block."

For the last year I've been reading a mix of literary noir, comic fiction and light non-fiction. Overall it's worked pretty well. But as soon as I lock myself in to some sort of pattern or goal I vapor lock.

So no goals other than to enjoy the time off.

Yeah i knew your were lawyer. Like i said it depends on your current work,life situation. If you are retired, old reader in 60s its different than 20-40 year old.

Me when i worked i didnt need any goals i read crime,noir,sf,fantasy,classic non-genre,classic genre,historical fiction or whatever whenever i wanted.

When i went back to Uni for a master degree in library science i felt like i needed goals to remember reading books for fun and not just for school work.

Also im from Somalia and live in western world i cant just read noir, fav american authors, euorpean,latin etc. I feel the need to read African lit, to read fiction, non-fiction of modern post colonial Africa. Get closer to home that is forever lost in my lifetime at-least.

Books isnt escapism,entertaiment for me as it was before. I try to read political,social realism books like 1984 which said alot to me about our world today. He even foresaw how rich western companies,economist would force poor people in Asia,Africa,Americas in slave like labor.

**berk** · 01-06-2012, 04:27 PM

I have three informal reading projects on the go that I hope to make progress in:

1. 19th century stuff
- I've been going through wiki's "year in literature" lists, picking out a few highlights here and there to read. I'm up to the 1840s and would hope to at least get to the 1860s by the end of the year.

2. 20th century modernists and their successors
- I'm taking a more scattered sampling of these, trying out some of the more experimental writers or books I haven't gotten to yet. Just read the first book in John Dos Passos's USA trilogy, The 42nd Parallel. Hope to get up to some more recent writers by year's end.

2. ancient history
- read some Diodorus and re-read Herodotus and Thucydides last year, hope to get through Xenophon, Arrian, and Polybius this year.

**i_mmmchocolate** · 01-20-2012, 09:46 AM

Originally Posted by Tadhg

I finally finished 2666, and I definitely want to read Savage Detectives and The Third Reich now.

Still can't believe he's dead sometimes. What a loss.

I read all of his short stories in 2010 and 2011.

**Sabrina_Fried** · 01-20-2012, 09:06 PM

I am going to try to remember to read more books that are not my textbooks or otherwise required reading for school.

It's not much of a goal, but ever since I went back to school I have fallen into this bad habit of not reading for FUN as often as I used to.

**sHayden** · 01-23-2012, 12:26 AM

I'd like to finish books one at a time.
I tend to read 3 or 4 at a time, and that way sometimes I get distracted or mix details up. Or I spend more time with one book and lose interest because I didn't come back to another book soon enough.
So this year, one at a time, two at most. I will keep them in separate genres though.

**Julusnc** · 01-23-2012, 04:25 AM

My goal for 2012 is to enjoy reading "real" books and not get thrown into the Kindle era.

I want to read the Hunger Games trilogy.The production finished filming many parts of the film in my hometown of Asheville, North Carolina.

I want to finish reading all of the Tarzan of the Apes Burroughs books as it is Tarzan's 100th Birthday in 2012.

I am looking forward to more Lee Child, Michael Connelly, T Jefferson Parker, Craig McDonald, and whatever catches my eye over the enxt 12 months.

**Libaax** · 01-26-2012, 01:51 PM

Originally Posted by Julusnc

My goal for 2012 is to enjoy reading "real" books and not get thrown into the Kindle era.

Amen to that

**Danes** · 01-26-2012, 02:19 PM

Heard about the Peter and the Starcatchers books, my goal is now to read the books.

**Ben Akers** · 01-26-2012, 09:23 PM

Originally Posted by Julusnc

My goal for 2012 is to enjoy reading "real" books and not get thrown into the Kindle era.

Come on dude, just because they're on a Kindle doesn't make them any less real.

**jesse_custer** · 01-27-2012, 07:15 AM

Sure it does. The Kindle gives you the content. It's not about real books, just like an MP3 player isn't about real CDs.

Not that there's anything wrong with e-books, but people who prefer real books have no use for them.

**Slam_Bradley** · 01-27-2012, 09:12 AM

Originally Posted by jesse_custer

Sure it does. The Kindle gives you the content. It's not about real books, just like an MP3 player isn't about real CDs.

Not that there's anything wrong with e-books, but people who prefer real books have no use for them.

Yeah. It's the medium for reading.

The thing is that there's this undercurrent that the boogeyman is going to come along and take all the "real" books and we'll be "forced" to read on e-readers.

I was firmly convinced that I'd never want an e-reader. Then my office got us I-Pads to hold our legal files when we go to court. At this point, I'd much rather read books on my I-Pad with the Kindle app than read "real" books.