Opinions of a Wolf

It’s that time of year again!  Time to think about my reading goals for the year.  Reading is one of my main passions in life (I’d say the others are writing, fitness, and animal rights).  I love it, but I also like to see how I change and grow and provide myself with a bit of direction, especially now that I’m out of school. (YAY).  To that end, let’s first take a glance at my goals from January 2011 and see how I did.

Successful:

• Read 100 books. I am so freaking HAPPY to say that I not only met this goal but surpassed it! Yay me!
• Frugality.  I had a hard time deciding if this was actually a success or not, after all I DID purchase a kindle.  However, buying my kindle opened up a whole world of cheaper books for me, including eARCs and the land of 99cent kindle sales.  I also completely stopped using PaperBackSwap and found a library branch convenient to my lifestyle.  By some odd combination of all three of those, I’d definitely say I drastically improved in this area, so I’m counting it a success.

Unsuccessful:

• Travel the seven continents. HAHAHAHA. This wasn’t just a fail. It was an epic fail.  My first book for this goal set me off on a Chinese lit tangent and then getting to know Amy and Kinna got me onto Nigerian lit and Ghanaian lit and then The Real Help Project got me onto black lit and um….yeah.  One thing I realized about my reading style is I get into things and read everything I can get my hands on in one fell swoop.  That means these challenges that cover large areas are just not for me.  I’m still happy with the new places I visited via my reading though.

Goals for 2012:

• TBR Pile Challenge with Amy.  Amy was doing a challenge with her roommate, and I elbowed my way in. (Thanks, sweety!)  As of January 1st, I had 47 books that I acquired before 2011 still unread.  My goal is to finish them all this year and hopefully faster than Amy can finish hers (47 from before 2009).  Whichever one of us finishes first gets a kindle book courtesy of the other.  I obviously wanted to read these books at some point, so I may as well do so sooner rather than later!  I mean, goodness, they were on my shelf over a year without being read? Oh dear.  See the whole list here.
• Diet for a New America Reading Project.  My passion for health and a reversion of the American health crisis and obesity epidemic led me to create this project.  Every month (we hope) on the third Saturday I’ll be reviewing a pre-determined book and hopefully at some point each month at least one fitness book or cookbook.  See the list of planned books and more details about the project here.
• One historic nonfiction book a month.  Memoirs do not count, unless they are written by critical figures.  Biographies do count.  Preferably about: time periods I know very little about, history of non-whites in the US, socialism, animal rights, etc….
• Read 110 books.  100 books was such a challenge that I’m just going to push myself a tiny bit, haha.
• Finish catching up with my accepted ARCs.  This was a goal in December, and I did a pretty good job with it.  I’m almost caught up, but not quite yet.
• Read six environmental nonfiction books.  The count last year was kind of sad for someone whose life goals involve minimalist living, positive or at least neutral impact on the environment, etc…  Vegetarian/vegan/animal liberation books do not count in this category.  Preservation of endangered species does.

Phew!  I think that’s more than enough goals for me for the year!  What do you guys think of them?  Any plans for your reading for this year?