Bookish Resolutions for 2021

2021 has only just started, but it already provided scenes and occurrences worthy of a nightmare. One way to make everything seem better is to focus on books and the joy they bring. During this year, I want to fulfil some reading goals as always. I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself, though, so my bookish resolutions for 2021 are deliberately not particularly challenging.

I intend to read at least 25 books. This is a significantly lower number than in previous years, mainly because I’m planning to read some huge books (longer than 800 pages) and I’ll obviously take much longer to finish them in comparison with medium-sized ones. If I read more pages than last year, I’ll be more than happy.

My second resolution is to read at least eight books by Lusophone authors. Lately, I’ve been mainly reading books originally written in English or translated into English, not only because they are cheaper than books published in Portugal, but also because of all your amazing recommendations. In 2020, I only read four books written by Lusophone authors, which is disconcerting, since Portuguese is my mother tongue. There are three books, for example, that I wanted to read last year but didn’t manage to and that I definitely want to pick up this year – A Maçã no Escuro (The Apple in the Dark) by Clarice Lispector, O Irmão Alemão (My German Brother) by Chico Buarque and O Quase Fim do Mundo by Pepetela.

2020 Bookish Resolutions’ Evaluation

When 2020 was still a promising year, that is to say in its first weeks, I set myself a few goals regarding my reading and the content I wanted to publish on this blog. The time has now come to evaluate whether I fulfilled them or not.

I wanted to read at least 35 books, having even the aspiration to read more pages than the year before. I failed to achieve my reading goal, though. Not only did I just finish 30 books, I also read fewer pages than in 2019. I blame the pandemic for this. Throughout the majority of the year, I struggled to read for long periods of time, even when I was enjoying the books.

Another of my reading resolutions was to finish three of the book series that I was reading. And I did! I completed The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan, As Areias do Imperador (Sands of the Emperor) by Mia Couto, and The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante. They are incredibly distinct in terms of genres and writing styles, but I relished reading all of them.

2020 Mid-Year Resolutions’ Evaluation

Before revisiting the blog post that I wrote about my bookish resolutions for this year, I was certain that I wasn’t on the way to achieving the majority of them. That is not the case, thankfully. But I’ve still read fewer books than I was expecting to so far.

One of my resolutions for this year is to read at least 35 books. I was hoping to surpass that number or at least read more pages than last year. I’ve only read 12 books so far, though, which means that I’m significantly behind schedule. I should have read 16 or 17 books by now. There are still full six months left in 2020, and I’m hoping to spend more time reading than I have so far from now on.

I was also eager to finish three of the book series that I was reading. I’ve already completed two – The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan and As Areias do Imperador (Sands of the Emperor) by Mia Couto.  I’m currently reading Royal Assassin, the second book in the Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb, but I’m not sure if I’ll pick up the last one until the end of the year (it’s massive!). Maybe I’ll read the last two books in The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante instead.

Bookish Resolutions for 2020

My resolutions or goals for 2020 concerning reading and the content that I create for this blog are mostly a continuation of or an improvement on what I’ve been doing for a while. I deliberately decided not to challenge myself too much and made sure to avoid setting goals that I could lose interest in. Only one of my resolutions is wholly new and may have a small impact on my book buying habits.

Regarding the number of books that I want to read, I’m keeping my goal at 35. However, I’m hoping to either surpass that number or read more pages than last year by selecting the books that I want to read more carefully. One of the reasons why I finished fewer books in 2019 than in 2018 was that I spent too much time forcing myself to read books that I ended up deciding not to finish, because I was either not enjoying them or they were not what I had expected.

I also want to finish three of the book series that I’m currently reading. Two of them will certainly be The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan and As Areias do Imperador (Sands of the Emperor) by Mia Couto, since I only have one book left to read from each. The other will probably either be The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb or The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante.

2019 Bookish Resolutions’ Evaluation

At the beginning of 2019, I set some goals for the year ahead regarding my reading, this blog and the social media that I use (not exclusively) for bookish purposes. The time has now come to evaluate whether I have met them or not.

I read in their entirety 35 books, the exact number that I had set as my minimum for the year. Although I read four fewer books than in the previous year, I read around 1300 more pages, according to Goodreads. And this is without counting with the eight books that I didn’t finish for various reasons.

Another of my resolutions was to reread at least one of my old favourite books. I reread O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis (The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis) by José Saramago and loved it as much as the first time. Despite it not being an old favourite, I also reread Hamlet by William Shakespeare at the end of December, after buying a new edition. I am still not a huge ‘rereader’, but I don’t feel like I’m ‘wasting my time’ anymore, even though there are still a large number of books that I’m eager to read for the first time.

2019 Mid-Year Resolutions’ Evaluation

We are almost midway through 2019. Thus, this is the perfect time to evaluate if I’m fulfilling my bookish resolutions for this year. A couple of them are vaguer than usual, so it may not be easy to come to objective conclusions.

When it comes to numbers, my desire is to read at least 35 books. I’ve finished 17 so far and am halfway through another. It seems likely that I will achieve my goal, particularly because I’ve already read more than half of the total number of pages that I’ve read last year, according to Goodreads. I may end up reading less books than in 2018, but it looks like I’ll have read more pages.

My second goal is to reread at least one of the books that I remember as old favourites, meaning books that I constantly mention as being favourites of mine but that I’ve read both before having this blog and started using a rating system. I’m currently rereading O Ano da Morte do Ricardo Reis (The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis in the English translation) by José Saramago.

Bookish Resolutions for 2019

I want 2019 to be a more relaxed reading year compared with 2018, which means I won’t be following any strict reading lists or embracing short-time reading projects. Nonetheless, there are still a few goals that I want to achieve regarding my reading habits and the way in which I create content for this blog and the social media (not exclusively) associated with it.

First, I want to read at least 35 books. This is the same number I had in mind for 2018, when I ended up reading 39 books. So, I could have challenged myself and aim for 40 books this time. However, I want to have a margin for reading longer books if I so wish.

I don’t remember the last time I reread a book, and until recently I always thought about rereading almost as a ‘waste of time’. I would be revisiting stories I already knew, when I could be discovering new ones. However, lately I’ve been feeling the urge to reread certain books. First, it was the books that I knew I had enjoyed when I first read them, but that I remembered nothing about. That desire faded away without me ever rereading a single one. Now, I’m feeling a strong yearn to reread some of the books that I constantly mention as being favourites of mine, although I’ve read them quite a few years ago, before I started rating books and blogging. For that reason, I want to reread at least one of those books this year.

2018 Bookish Resolutions’ Evaluation

I had six bookish resolutions for 2018. And I can proudly announce that I’ve managed to fulfil the majority of them! In fact, I’ve only failed to accomplish one of my goals, despite not having done as well as I was expecting to regarding another one.

My main ambition last year was to read one book by an author from each of the still 28 EU member states. I called this project ‘EU still 28’ and completed it before the end of December. I read some truly good books and discovered several authors whose work I want to continue delving into. I don’t regret doing it at all! However, I have to concede that having a relatively long list of books set to read during one year was too restricting, and it was really difficult to find books that immediately appealed to me to represent some countries. Thus, I ended up reading a couple of books that I would have never picked up otherwise and that I didn’t like that much.

I had hoped to read 35 books during 2018. I surpassed that number, having read a total of 39 books! A small number for many of you, but one that I’m really proud of. I also started reading two books that I ended up not finishing, so they don’t count for this purpose.

2018 Mid-Year Resolutions’ Evaluation

We are now midway through 2018, hence it’s the perfect time to examine whether I’m fulfilling my bookish resolutions or not. In all honesty, I could only recollect two of the goals I had set myself, so I had to reread the blog post where I revealed them. One of the reasons why I couldn’t remember all of my resolutions was that I’ve been following the majority of them almost instinctively.

My prime resolution for 2018 was to read one book by an author from each of the still 28 EU member states. I called this reading project ‘EU still 28’. You can know more about it at its dedicated page. So far, I’ve read 12 out of the 28 books on my previously established list. I’m not halfway through yet, but since I’ve read a few books aside from this project, I’m confident that I can still complete it before the year comes to an end.

At the beginning of the year, I hoped to read 35 books in 2018. Thus far, I’ve read 18 and am almost finishing another. So, I’m pretty sure I’ll manage to comply with my reading challenge and may even surpass it.

Bookish Resolutions for 2018

A new year, a new set of bookish resolutions. This year I want to embark on a new reading project and create new types of content for the blog. But I’m also repeating one of the goals I had for 2017.

2018 is the last entire year during which the UK will retain EU membership, unless someone manages to stop this Brexit madness (I’m sorry, but this is how it looks like from outside of the UK). So, this year I want to read at least one book by an author from each of the still 28 EU member states. This idea was inspired by Marina Sofia at Findingtimetowrite who last year started the #EU27Project as a way to say farewell to the remaining 27 countries. I’m taking a slightly different approach and am also reading a book by an author from the UK, more precisely from Scotland, since the vast majority there voted to remain in the EU. You can see a list of all the books I’m reading for this project in the ‘EU still 28’ page on my reading projects section.

As I hope to read more books than the ones on that list, mainly some by the authors I want to read every year, I’m planning to finish 35 books until the end of the 2018. If I accomplish that goal, I will have read one more book than in 2017.