2009 was the year of attempting to read one hundred books (and failing but being okay with it because a post titled “I’ve got 99 problems, but a book ain’t one” is so much cooler than “Hey! I read 100 books!), and 2010 was the year of reading deliberately. The former was goal-oriented and easily measurable, whereas the latter was intangible but completely revolutionized the way I approach reading and blogging, and both were great fun. I never set reading goals prior to 2009, and I’ve discovered that I like having something to focus my reading.
I’ve been contemplating my 2011 reading goals for the last couple months, and I’ve just kept coming up empty. I kn0w I don’t want to attempt to read a certain number of books again because my desire to hit the goal will make it too tempting to sacrifice quality and avoid chunksters in service of achieving quantity (though I am considering setting a goal for pages read, based on a percentage increase over last year), and I don’t need to make another paradigm shift, and I want it to be fun, realistically achievable, and connected to my reading life.
And where do I spend much of my reading life these days?
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So my goal for 2011 is to read one book from every section of Fountain Bookstore. To make it more interesting—and to support my ongoing attempt to explore new genres and expand my literary horizons—these will have to be books recommended to me by the Fountain staff and that I wouldn’t ordinarily pick up on my own. This means I will finally be reading a graphic novel and that there will be, for the first time ever, reviews of children’s books on this blog, and that even when I get to the sections where I normally shop, I’ll have to try something new.
This might sound like a crazy goal, especially if you’re picturing a big box bookstore and wondering how on earth someone could read from every section of it, but Fountain is small and well-curated, and I’m looking forward to exploring its nooks and crannies and enjoying the experience of having its fabulous staff handsell me their favorite titles from each genre. I’ll post a list of the bookstore’s sections and my preliminary selections soon, and you know I’ll be writing about my adventures along the way. And if you’d like to join me, I’m sure your local indie would be thrilled to guide you on a journey of your own.
(Time for a special shout-out to Josh, whose annual tradition of reading & tweeting a recommendation from every section of the bookstore where he works inspired this goal.)
Are you making any reading resolutions in 2011?
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