Top Ten Bookish Resolutions for 2011

It's Tuesday which means another Top Ten Tuesday hosted by our friends at

 The Broke and the Bookish!

I absolutely resolved to only make promises I could keep in 2011, which of course precluded a lengthy resolution list.  However, I think I can resolutely say that I can make 10 bookish resolutions that I will keep, and I am definitely considering this as tangential to what would be standard resolutions, as they are all reading related and as such fall under the header of "I will read a lot this year!"  Both a promise I can keep, and a resolution that warrants a little fleshing out.  So here goes...my ten(ish...maybe 11) bookish resolutions for 2011:

1. Complete at least one reading challenge this year.
   I have set three challenges to meet this year:  read 12 books from my TBR shelf that have been there more than 1 year, read at least 150 books (including books read to my kid), read at least 100 books (not including books read to my kid).  I will manage at least one.
2. Review the books I read this year.  Last year I got lazy on a lot of them, perhaps because I didn't have particularly strong reactions to a number of them, which makes them difficult to review.  I want to strive to do better than a simple rating this year, as I find it enhances my reading experiences.
3. Read every night before I go to sleep.  So often I get distracted or busy & then stumble into bed at night.  It is so much easier to sleep if I give myself time to read & unwind at the end of the day, so I will strive to do that on a daily basis in 2011.
4. FINALLY read Moby Dick, Great Expectations and Middlemarch.  I will confess here that I will be listening to the (unabridged) audiobooks rather than actually reading these books, but I LOVE experiencing classics this way, and it's a really great way for me to get the long(ish) classics under my belt.  Makes running errands & such a lot more enjoyable, too.
5. FINISH For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and Eat, Pray, Love.  Two of three will be easy, as I am thoroughly enjoying the audio experience of the Hemingway & Frank books.  I think the McCullars will actually require a restart, but I'm confident it will be great.  Eat, Pray, Love...am struggling with this one a lot, and will (hopefully) not throw it into the DNF heap, though it certainly depends on how infuriating it turns out to be.
6. Use the library more, and have overdue fines less.  I am so prone to buy books (yes, I buy used almost always), but my bookshelves are overflowing and there are things I don't currently own that are high on my TBR list for 2011.  I've just got to remember to renew, renew, renew...we get five renewals here, for heaven's sake...I've got to do better.
7. Read more from my own shelves.  Though I have stacks of books, I still get sidetracked by a new (for me) book that I can't resist buying.  It's not as though pulling from my shelves would make for boring reading...I'm just a bibliophile to my core, and books make me happy.
8. Use iBooks, especially when traveling.  I always travel with books...I've just got to try & keep it to ebooks & audiobooks when I'm flying.  Right......
9. Search out and finally listen to the audio cd of On Writing by Stephen King.  It's out there.  Get it.  Listen to it.  Pass it on to someone.
10. Use 501 Must Read Books, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, Classic Novels, and other lists of this sort as guides for my 2011 (and beyond) reading.  Always good to keep up with what is generally considered great lit.
11. Enjoy reading every day!!

Well, there it is...my list of bookish resolutions.  I don't think it's too hard, actually.  So, what are your bookish goals for 2011?