Sunday, January 01, 2012

1. Make a list of things to do. 2. Do the things on the list. 3. Call it a day.

With the new year beginning, I've been thinking about goals.  Isn't everyone?  We make resolutions.  We break resolutions. We say we don't believe in resolutions. blah. blah. blah.   So, of course, they are on my mind.  With that being said, I came up with a list of Reading Resolutions for 2012. 

2012 Reading Resolutions

Reinstate the Newbery Challenge – A couple of years ago I challenged myself to read more Newbery winners and honors, including at least one from each decade of the award’s existence.  I want to challenge myself again to read more of the Newbery winners and honors. The goal?  To read twelve Newbery books this year.

Read more Printz winners and honors.  Granted, this is an easier goal to achieve, since the Printz award is much younger in comparison to the Newbery.  There are 57 winners/honors since the award was first given in 2000.  As of today I have read 17.  There are three more titles that I started and didn’t finish.  The goal?  To read twelve Printz books this year.

Once upon a time I belonged to two different book discussion groups.  One focused solely on YA/Teen literature.  The other focused on all youth literature. Due to scheduling conflicts (for the first group) and later increased hours of operation at our library (for the second group), I’m no longer involved in either one.  In fact, the second group doesn’t meet at all anymore.  This makes me sad.  The goal?  Join or start a new youth literature discussion group.  I would prefer for the group to meet face to face, but if it must be online, then that will do for now.

Using several methods, I keep track of the books I read.  I don’t, however, do a good job of keeping track of the picture books I read.  The goal? Keep track of picture books read!  Add them to GoodReads.com.  Write about them on the book blog.  Put the titles on the Books Read word document.

Social Media is, obviously, very popular.  I blog and tweet (and have both post to Facebook) about books and reading.  But do I blog and tweet enough?  What else can I be doing?  The goal?  Up my social media usage (in regards to books).

Every time I see that the 48-hour Reading Challenge is going to happen, I think, “This time I am going to participate.”  Then I promptly forget or end up too busy to devote that weekend to reading.  The goal?  Participate in at least one official 48-hour Reading Challenge in 2012.  

Keep up with the buzz in the business.  I subscribe to a bunch of blogs.  Do I actually read them?  Not nearly as much as I once did.  The same goes with trade journals.  The goal?  Take the time to read the blogs, journals, and other news sources to keep up with libraryland.  

In summary, these are my Reading Resolutions for 2012:
  • Read twelve Newbery books this year
  • Read twelve Printz books this year
  • Join or start a new youth literature discussion group
  • Keep track of picture books read
  • Up my social media usage (in regards to books)
  • Participate in at least one official 48-hour Reading Challenge in 2012
  • Take the time to read the blogs, journals, and other news sources to keep up with libraryland

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