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Wednesday, January 2, 2013

New Year's Resolutions 2013

Wow! Moving into year four on the blog. It's kind of amazing to me. Looking back, it's really  interesting to see my prior New Years' Resolutions. And, of course, I'm thinking a lot about where I'd like to be in the coming year. Right now, I know that I have a ton of YA reviews to catch up on.

Let's take a quick look at the numbers:
In 2009, I reviewed 13 picture books
In 2010, I reviewed 24 picture books
2011, equalled 54 picture books
2012, I managed to review 98 picture books

As the blog currently stands, I don't know if I'm giving the impression of someone who is a voracious reader of YA books (even though I am.) So, I think in the coming year, I'll definitely slow way down on picture book reviews. It's not that I don't love them. (I absolutely do!) But, trying to review all the picture books and easy readers that cross my way has meant that I'm actually writing a lot of very negative reviews. And that bums me out. It's depressing to pan a book that might have represented weeks, if not months or the better part of a year of effort from a whole team of people: authors, illustrators, editors. Don't get me wrong, I do like the occasional negative review - only if it's well deserved, of course. It keeps me honest and proves that I'm not a glad-happy yea-sayer, ready to gush over every single book that comes my way. But, lately I've been feeling in my effort to exhaustively cover the picture book market, I'm robbing myself of opportunities to read, review and share books for older kids that I have really enjoyed.

How much to post? That a question that I usually ask myself around this time of year. I started with a pledge to post 1-3 times a week, amped that up to every single day, and then scaled back down to 3x per week. I'm pretty comfortable with that routine. Three posts a week feels about right. Though, of course, if I think of more things to say, I'll be sure to post more!

And, how many books to read this year? In the past, I've set my sights quite high and been so disappointed when I feel just short. Last year, I set myself the silly and nonsensical goal of a book a month - 12 books total, knowing that I would certainly make it, and it would just be interesting to see how many books I'd read with the shackles totally off.

I feel like 100 is still a pretty easy goal. This next year I'd like to read a little more than that. 104 is a nice number - that's two books a week. If I can read 104+ books this year I'll be pretty pleased with myself.

What are your New Years' Resolutions?

2 comments:

  1. I would love to see you review more YA books. I hear you on the negative reviews. It's good overall to have some because then I know I can trust the blogger, but as the blogger writing the negative reviews it can become a downer. I feel like a big complainer when I have a few in a row. :P

    Good luck on your 104 goal! You should definitely be able to do that. I picked 75 books for my goal. I figured I was able to read 77 this year, and this was a pretty busy year so I should be able to pull off a similar number in 2013. Hopefully :P

    I never noticed you always use Star Wars pictures for these posts. Fun!

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  2. Haha, thanks! I started with Yoda, because I caught myself saying that I would "try" to do this and that. And like Yoda says, "Do or do not! There is no try." And then, I just kind of kept with it.

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