Looking Forward to 2011

2010 is almost over. Unbelievable! Either way, this time of year is always fun for book bloggers. We get to look at the new challenges. We get to think about what we want to accomplish in the coming year. We get to look back at what we have accomplished over the past year. Can you tell that I LOVE this time of year when it comes to my reading? I’m a planner. I’m a list maker. I just eat up this kind of stuff 🙂

Anyways, I have already over-extended myself on the challenge front. I took a step back from challenges in 2010; I still participated, but I really only chose those challenges that were open ended. By that I mean there was no set lists, there was no categories to find books to fit into. I thought that that would open up my reading and really let me get back to what I enjoyed. And it did. I have had a great reading year this year, even though my quantity of not where I would like it to be, my quality has been over the moon this year.

I have already been signing up for challenges for 2011. I had made myself swear that I would only sign up for 5. Well, I’ve already failed on that. This morning I signed up for my 6th (and last!) challenge. Looking over the challenges that I have signed up for 2011, I noticed that I have gotten back into the kind that require you to find books that fit into certain categories. That’s what I wanted to get away from in 2010. But I’ve gone right back to it. I don’t care, I enjoy the hunt of finding the perfect books. It seems to me that I am going to have to step out of my comfort zone (crime fiction) quite a bit in 2011. I like that, I want to challenge myself in that manner.

I still hope to work on the book series that I have going. I always have to resist signing up for the First in a Series Challenge because I already have SO MANY series that I am very far behind in! In 2010, I have really taken a look at the book series that I had been working on. Some of them I still love and will NEVER give up on. However, I didn’t feel so guilty when I decided to step away from a few (Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone; Harlan Coben’s Myron Bolitar; Janet Evanvoich’s Stephanie Plum) I don’t feel bad whatsoever. In fact, I felt a little bit relieved when I made the decision. I also decided that I would read Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt series, but not necessarily every book in the entire series – just those that sounded good to me. I have come to the realization that life is way too short to read books that I don’t like just because they are part of a series that I want to finish. It’s simply not worth the effort.

In 2010 I have had 7 DNF books. This is something that I never would have done a few years ago. But when a book is taking me 2-3 weeks and I’m still under the 150 page mark – it’s time to put it aside. And I feel absolutely no guilt about doing this whatsoever. As stated above, life is too short to read books I don’t like! Although I did have two books on my DNF list that really disappointed me (Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol and Steig Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – I wanted to enjoy those books SO MUCH and I just didn’t….).

In 2010, I became a lot more selective about which review books I would take on. I decided that it wasn’t doing me any good to accept books for review that I would end up not liking for one reason or another. I have become a lot more selective, I have done a lot more research when I’m first pitched a book. And because of that, I have read some really great books that I NEVER would have found otherwise. I’m very pleased with that.

I’m not very well-known throughout the blog-o-sphere. I want to change that in 2011. I want to come out of my shell and start commenting more on people’s blogs. I want people to become aware of me. I want to hold more giveaways (and have more than 4 people sign up….). I’m considering participation in the Bloggiesta coming up in January (although, I have to double check on the dates and make sure that it’s not scheduled for when I have to go to the World of Concrete in Vegas for work.) ETA: Yep, it is indeed scheduled for the weekend I will be gone…GRRR, oh well, maybe next time.

Anyways, I don’t know where my reading will take me in 2011. I don’t want to plan it out too much. I just want to let it take me where it takes me. I hope 2011 is a great year for us; we have some big plans for 2011. And I don’t want to feel too tied down to my reading. I hope to just be able to read what I want, when I want to. And most of all – I want to have FUN!