Reading goals for 2017: 11/22/16

As the year winds down it's time to assess the year's reading and to make plans for next years. What I read next year will depend heavily on what I end up doing next year. There is the distinct possibility that next year will bring tons of change for me and my family. The last big disruptions were in 2004 when we moved to our current home and in 1999 when we decided to move to the Bay Area from South Pasadena.

The most unsettling piece of next year's puzzle is that it's not just us in the equation. My in laws are serious discussing a move meaning an end to twenty-five years of tradition. In all the time I've known them and been part of the family, they've been working on and re-working their house. It is a thing of beauty and next year it will most likely be someone else's.

So my reading and blogging goals — if they can even be called that in such uncertainty — will be moulded by what's happening at home. Of course that's always true to some extent but this coming year the effects will be more noticeable.

Last year I made a goal to read and review at least 52 currently published books and I've surpassed that goal. I've found this project to be both rewarding and exhausting. With the CYBILS in full swing right now, I'm finding the constant reading of 2016 published books exhausting and I'm looking forward to a break.

That said, I do plan to continue with staying current in my reading, of course with the goal soon being to read and review books published in 2017. I will keep goal at 52, but I expect the number might end up being less because of the personal and familiar upheaval.

Realistically speaking there will be two halves to my 2017 reading. There will be the first six months were my focus will have to be on physical books I've purchased and don't intend on keeping. I have already weeded the majority of the books I don't want to keep (or read). Now comes the ones I know I want to weed after reading them.

In a typical year my reading is primarily library books. Given that I have a summer deadline (potentially) for weeding my collection, my focus will shift to my personal collection. For the 2017 published books, I suspect most of those will be ebooks for the portability, although there might be some library books tucked in there too.

In October my road trip research fell to just 3% of my over all reviewing. In the early months of 2016 I purchased and downloaded a bunch of books. They will be part of my personal collection reading as they are here now. However, the reading to weed project will have to take precedence.

The Canadian Book Challenge will remain an important reading prompt for me. We're almost halfway through the tenth annual challenge. I've actually already technically finished having read more than thirteen books. As all of this personal and familiar upheaval is directly related to Canada, reading about Canada will become all the more important. I suspect more of my Canadian reading will be nonfiction instead of my usual YA and middle grade fiction.

Inclusive reading will of course still be on my radar. Among the books in my personal collection I have a sizable number that I need to read. For future inclusive reading, again I suspect much of it will be in ebook form until things settle down. Eventually I'll return to my library habit but it may very well be at a different library in a different country.

For the last bunch of years I've set my reading goal at 300. I honestly don't know how 2017 will stack up for time to read. There are just too many unknowns right now. With insufficient data, I'm leaving the goal at 300. If it looks like I won't make that goal after a better understanding of the situation mid year, I'll revise my number downwards.

While not a reading goal, per se, you might be wondering about the book blog and my Tumblr sites. I have no plans to discontinue blogging. 2017 will mark the twentieth anniversary of my main website. Mind you it's only been a blog for last thirteen years, and a book blog since 2006. If for some reason my current ISP has a problem with me becoming an international customer (if that happens), then I will move to a new ISP. The address might change but the content will all be there.

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