I didn’t set any reading goals last year. In 2007 I read only 14 books in the whole year, and I think seeing other folks’ reading totals coupled with the morbid realization that I don’t have an infinite amount of time to read all the books I’d like to made me want to step up the number of books I read. I did better in 2008 at 23 books, and in 2009 I read 29. In 2010 I read 40 books. In the interests of improving each year, I hope to read 50 books in 2011.

I’m participating in the following reading challenges:

• Books I Should Have Read in School, But Didn’t (my own challenge)
• Historical Fiction Reading Challenge
• Steampunk Challenge
• YA Historical Fiction Challenge
• Take a Chance Challenge
• Gothic Reading Challenge
• GLBT Challenge 2011
• Sense and Sensibility Bicentenary Challenge
• Being a Jane Austen Mystery Challenge

I haven’t previous declared my intention of signing up for the Sense and Sensibility Bicentenary Challenge. I thought about it for a while because I just re-read Sense and Sensibility this year. I decided I could save it for a late-2011 re-read—after all, I couldn’t let the bicentenary of one of my favorite novels by one of my favorite authors pass by with no celebration at all! Plus, The Annotated Sense and Sensibility comes out in May, and it should offer a deeper and newer way to experience the book. I am not sure which other books in the challenge I’ll read. I know I won’t be reading The Three Weissmanns of Westport because I read it in 2010, and I didn’t like it so much that I would want to read it again that soon. However, I have tried very few of the Austen sequels, and this challenge might be an opportunity to do so. I am committing to the Neophyte level of 1-4 books. I’m most interested in these, in addition to The Annotated Sense and Sensibility:

• Willoughby’s Return, Jane Odiwe
• Colonel Brandon’s Diary, Amanda Grange
• The Cookbook Collector, Allegra Goodman

I can’t say for certain I am done signing up for challenges because some of them run later in the year, and as you can see, many of the challenges are similar enough that I can count books for more than one challenge. I like reading challenges because it’s a way of feeling like a part of a reading community or book club of sorts. I will be signing up for Carl’s challenges when they occur later this year for sure.

In terms of blogging, I want to improve my posts by tagging them better. I often forget tags. For instance, I like to tag all the books I read on my Kindle with my Kindle tag, but when I went through some older posts, I missed tagging probably five or six books. It doesn’t make my blog as user-friendly as I’d like when I don’t tag properly. Also, I want to begin including author names in my book review blog post titles. I haven’t been in the habit of doing that, and it might be helpful for readers. I would also like to maintain my regular posting schedule as much as possible. I have finished my master’s now, so I hope I’ll have more time for reading and blogging. I would like to become more involved in the reading blogger community.

Do you have any reading goals? Participating in any challenges you want to share?

photo credit: freeparking