A New Leaf Turned

I impressed myself this year. I read 28 books. Yes, some were a little short, but some were quite long. I also abortively started some, like Will Self’s short stories, and only got halfway… that more than a 100 pages uncatalogued against my target. Time spent, time lost.

With two days of 2011 to go I’ve fallen back on comics. I have a backlog of DC’s New 52 to get through and make a call on what I will or won’t continue to read. Reading short superhero stories comes across like something of a reward in the wake of my (personally) mammoth reading achievement.

I suspect I will need to consider a Best Read… and do my best to write a review for everything I finished. I should aim to make that part of the reading ritual next year. Read, review, read, review. I did post a couple of reviews here. I also posted at Amazon and Goodreads.com. I just need to be a little more thorough. A little more conscientious. If I write a review I practice my reading, comprehension, and my critical faculties. All good.

I set a target for 2011 of just 12 books. I stretched that target twice, to 18 then 24. In the end, I beat that final target also. Starting with a target of 24 for 2012 would seem a good first stab. Some of my current reading will figure in those numbers – like The Return of the Native and Listening to Britain – neither of which I stand a chance of finishing in the time I have left. I’d also like to return to some defeats of the past – like Catch-22 – that I ought to have stuck with through to the end. I also plan to read the next on the Bond series, a Doctor Who novel and something Star Trek, for the purposes of covering my throwaway paperback/light reading quota.

I’d rather not pick out too many in advance and spoil the surprise. I have grown accustomed to a fortnightly visit to the local library. I hope you will also try to read more… I wish I could get my youngest to reading anything at all; he needs to make reading his resolution… I can’t really force him.

And of course there’s the whole other matter of writing more… I’ll save my thoughts on that for the next post.