Reading Plans for 2023, Book Goals

[Extollager]

So ... does anyone have special reading goals for the imminent new year? Some book or series that you've been meaning to tackle and that you expect will take more than ordinary application to complete? Have you a particular subject you mean to read a lot about? Is there a long-term reading project that you mean to finish in 2023?

How about books themselves -- do you mean to cull a bunch? Are you planning to add bookshelves?

In 2023 I mean to read more poetry, probably starting in a few days with Reading Walter de la Mare: Poems Selected and Annotated by William Wootten.

I plan to read The History of The Hobbit, John Rateliff's account of the composition, various drafts, etc. of Tolkien's book, one of the books I've loved most for about 55 years.

I mean to read a Shakespeare play each quarter, probably in the year combining well-known ones and obscure ones.

Several of the Heinlein juveniles.

 

[Bick]

Same as usual, probably, Extollager. Another Dickens or two, some more Twain, a mix of some authors I like (more Haldeman, Foster, Anderson, McDevitt etc), and some new stuff. I also plan on finishing The Lensmen series, and reading further in Gannon’s Caine series. I’d be surprised if I didn’t read more Wodehouse. Also of course, I plan on continuing with the Haggard reading game, and also reading more Barsoom books. That lot should keep me busy.

 

[Bick]

I mean to read a Shakespeare play each quarter, probably in the year combining well-known ones and obscure ones

This is also a great idea, I’ve been thinking along similar lines myself. I need to get a decent Shakespeare collection.

 

[cyprus7]

The Complete Robert Louis Stevenson Collection - on my Kindle.

 

[Randy M.]

Vague and tentative plans to tackle some books I've put off because of their length or probable difficulty. Notably a book just published, THE LIFE OF CRIME, a non-fiction history/criticism of the mystery genre by Martin Edwards, which I've just begun. I hope to also tackle LITTLE BIG by John Crowley, and maybe finally get around to his ENGINE SUMMER and NOVELTIES & SOUVENIRS, a story collection. I also hope to read more Elizabeth Hand -- CURIOUS TOYS and SAFFRON & BRIMSTONE (story collection) -- and perhaps a couple of others.

Another likely suspect is Donna Tartt's A SECRET HISTORY.

We'll see. I make great plans. Follow through is a bit less great.

 

[Extollager]

Randy, I reread The Secret History this year and (I say this hesitantly, but) I think it impressed me more than ever. It does remind me of at least one of my favorite books, Dostoevsky's Demons, though not closely.

 

[Extollager]

The Complete Robert Louis Stevenson Collection - on my Kindle.

Hear, hear! I think Stevenson is often sort of taken for granted -- we know he's good but we just don't get around to reading him. But then maybe we read him and -- yeah, this is good! I mean eventually to read more or less all of his stories.

 

[Extollager]

This is also a great idea, I’ve been thinking along similar lines myself. I need to get a decent Shakespeare collection.

Bick, I don't know what your preferences are, but if you are looking for a good one-volume Shakespeare, you might consider a used copy of The Complete Works, ed. G. B. Harrison, Harcourt Brace and World, 1968. The print is readable, larger I think than The Complete Pelican Shakespeare, which is the one I required my students to buy as an affordable, in-print edition. The Harrison is free of the current claptrap about gender and so on; editorial introductions are briefer than in Orgel's Pelican edition, more historical than theoretical. There is some good historical material up front in the Harrison. And because it is an "obsolete" text book, copies might not be too expensive. On the other hand, among such copies as are available there may be markings from undergraduates. When I read the Bard in the year ahead, it'll be the Harrison that I will reach for, I expect.

 

[Bick]

Bick, I don't know what your preferences are, but if you are looking for a good one-volume Shakespeare, you might consider a used copy of The Complete Works, ed. G. B. Harrison, Harcourt Brace and World, 1968. The print is readable, larger I think than The Complete Pelican Shakespeare, which is the one I required my students to buy as an affordable, in-print edition. The Harrison is free of the current claptrap about gender and so on; editorial introductions are briefer than in Orgel's Pelican edition, more historical than theoretical. There is some good historical material up front in the Harrison. And because it is an "obsolete" text book, copies might not be too expensive. On the other hand, among such copies as are available there may be markings from undergraduates. When I read the Bard in the year ahead, it'll be the Harrison that I will reach for, I expect.

Very helpful, many thanks.

 

[Extollager]

The Complete Robert Louis Stevenson Collection - on my Kindle.

To show that I did mean it about intending to read more or less all of Stevenson's stories -- I still have not read The Black Arrow, St. Ives, and Prince Otto, but otherwise I think I've read all of his book-length fiction, from the well-known (Treasure Island, etc.) to the more obscure (More Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter, The Wrong Box, etc.). I've read most of his shorter stories but not yet "The Misadventures of John Nicolson," etc. I've read some unfinished works -- "The Waif Woman," "Heathercat," and of course the unfinished masterpiece Weir of Hermiston. The point is not my "accomplishment" but that this author really is worth digging into, not just Treasure Island, Jekyll & Hyde, and Kidnapped.

 

[Rodders]

I'm hoping that 2023 will mean more cycling home from work, so rather than listen to music, i'd like to listen to audio books. I have a few Iain M. Banks Culture novels, but the path on the way home follows the A13 and it is very noisy. Perhaps the Blakes 7 audio dramas as well.

I'd still like to read 2 books a month. Perhaps watch less telly and make some time to read at home.

I'd like to read two classic SF novels. A Canticle for Liebowitz to be one of them.

 

[Elentarri]

My only plan for 2023 is to read more of the physical books on my shelves, instead of prioritizing library books, borrowed books, e-books, or audiobooks. And then recycle the ones I am probably not going to re-read, instead of just keeping them (running out of shelf space).

 

[The Big Peat]

My reading goals such as I know them

147 books (takes me to 500 over 3 years, which is a nice number)
11 new to me fantasy authors
A second 11 as stretch goals
11 new to me non-fantasy authors
11 authors to retry
11 series to continue
6 pre-LotR pieces of fantasy


Not a whole lot of names for those goals beyond the 147, I usually only decide on them in Feb, but I might sit down and get them done sooner

 

[THX1138]

I put off reading for many years because it takes me a year to get through a book due to the severity of my dyslexia. But with the help of a pair of colored filters over my glasses, I can get through a book in a month or two (Time permitting on my part of course). I'm going to try to keep this momentum going through this new year.

 

[bretbernhoft]

In 2023 I would like to read 25 books. If I can accomplish that, I have done myself a major favor.

 

[Foxbat]

I'm hoping that 2023 will mean more cycling home from work, so rather than listen to music, i'd like to listen to audio books.

I did this when I was cycling to work and found it a most enjoyable combination of exercise and entertainment.

As for numbers, I'm a slow reader so around twenty books (mostly history/biography with some SF chucked in) would be a good year for me.

 

[hitmouse]

No formal plans. See what turns up. I get recommendations from Chrons and from newspaper reviews. I also like second-hand bookshops as destinations. I usually spot something interesting. Luckily lots of those close to where I live, including Hay-on-Wye. I have a pile of cheapo 60s & 70s SF novels picked up in this way in 2022 which I will chug through in 2023.
I am going to Paris in February and will look for inspiration in Shakespeare & Co.
Also another trip to Kolkata in May, which has a vast and very funky used book market in College Street.

Just before Christmas I tracked down an affordable copy of the NESFA The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith (1993) ed. James Mann, which is in the post. Looking forward to that, and filling the gaps in my reading of Smith's short fiction.

 

[Rodders]

I did this when I was cycling to work and found it a most enjoyable combination of exercise and entertainment.

I'd also like to use the time to listen to the Chrons Pod Casts. I've only listened to one, but fount it enjoyable.

 

[Extollager]

I'm just halfway through the Pantheon (1944) edition of the fairy tales of Grimm, though I started it in 2009. Maybe I'll finish it in 2023. But why hurry? One good story after another. What a treasury.

 

[Randy M.]

Just before Christmas I tracked down an affordable copy of the NESFA The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith (1993) ed. James Mann, which is in the post. Looking forward to that, and filling the gaps in my reading of Smith's short fiction

That one is in the back of my mind to dig into further this year, one of several longer volumes I hope to tackle.