Top Ten Tuesday: Reading Goals I Still Want to Accomplish Before the End of the Year

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics

• 1st August: Forgotten Backlist Titles
• 8th August: Books I’ve Read/Want to Read Because of Top Ten Tuesday
• 15th August: Bookshops in Rome I Am Excited For
• 28th August: Water
• 5th September: Books That Defied My Expectations
• 12th September: Books Awaiting Reviews
• 19th September: Books on My Fall 2023 To-Read List
• 26th September: Secondary/Minor Characters Who Deserve Their Own Book

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This is a little bit of a milestone: my first TTT as a fifty-year old… half a century. Realising that I pre-date the internet, Space Invaders, the Rubik’s cube, Jaws and Concord was an eye-opnener. And realising that those people who I’ve always seen as ‘old’ were actually much younger than I am now is mind-boggling. And as my Dad is in the final stages of terminal cancer and is only 26 years older than I am now … that’s a humbling thought!

Will my taste in reading suddenly change? Suddenly my TBR fill up with books about slippers and geraniums..? I doubt it!

Anyway, this week’s theme is to consider what goals I might want to achieve by the end of the year – those remaining three months.

1. Read more physical books

The vast majority of my reading is on my kindle – which my family have now dubbed my “emotional support book” as I take it everywhere with me, regardless of whether I’m likely to read it or not!

But there is something wonderful about holding a single physical book at a time. And with my birthday book tokens, I have picked up a couple that piqued my interest.

2. Read more poetry

I adore poetry but struggle to find contemporary poets to read.

What I wanted to do, and still intend to, is get hold of the T. S. Eliot Prize shortlist and explore some new voices.

3. Continue to read through the Booker Prize Shortlist

The Booker List can be a little underwhelming often and does still tend to look less diverse that I’d like at times… there was a lot of Ireland this year, and more authors named Paul than female novelists…

That said, I am really enjoying The Bee Sting at the moment.

4. Widen diversity in my reading

There are times when I feel tired by the thought of picking up what the industry has always seemed to prioritise, the white middle class male author.

I think I am fairly diverse in my reading outside of that staple, but I am constantly looking for those marginalised and under-represented voices. And I have been planning on reading Vagabonds for so long!

5. Read more YA

I love Young Adult and many of my favourite books of all time are in that category.

I’ve not read as many as I wanted to recently and would love to pick up some more…

I had really enjoyed The Eternal Return of Clara Hart from this year’s YOTO Shortlist.

6. Re-read more classics

Austen. Dickens. Shakespeare…

Let’s be honest, expecting us to understand the layers of this as nineteen, twenty-year olds at University is unrealistic!

7. Catch up on my backlist of reviews

I’ve made a start!

There are so many – and a growing number – books waiting for reviews now – so much so that I blogged about them here

8. Try my hand at writing – NaNoWriMo?

I have participated in NaNoWriMo before – National Novel Writing Month – where you win simply by putting 50,000 words onto paper or a screen over November… regardless of the quality of those words!

The idea is that a first draft need only exist… and editing happens only once it exists.

And there is an idea floating about in the back of my head…

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Upcoming Top Ten Tuesday Themes

October 10: Bookish Jobs I Would Do For Free (Real or Imaginary) (Submitted by Susan @ Bloggin’ bout Books)
October 17: Books with Weather Events in the Title/on the Cover (I’m picturing a list of titles with weather-related words in them like storm, rain, blizzard, flood, lightning, hail, snow, wind, etc. OR covers with lightning/storms in the picture.)
October 24: Atmospheric Books (The Novelry explains this concept as: “A novel feels atmospheric when the setting and the narrative are deeply involved with one another; when characters and plot are physically embedded in their surroundings, and a near-tangible mood lifts from the pages and wraps itself around the reader.” Study.com explains that, “The atmosphere is how a writer constructs their piece to convey feelings, emotions, and mood to the reader. The atmosphere in literature might be tense, fast-paced, mysterious, spooky, whimsical, or joyful and can be found in poetry, stories, novels, and series.”)
October 31: Halloween Freebie