2018 Reading Goals and Some Plans For This Blog

So 2017 draws to a close. Thank god.

So...I have some ideas for the blog. The major thing that I want to do is to add a recommendation list. This will be one big giant list, in handy, alphabetical order, by author. I'll be doing it in posts and have a link sidebar somewhere so people will be able to just click and peruse my recommendations if they don't want to go through my huge review backlist. So keep an eye out for this. It'll be done over time, not all at once. I will also frequently update the list as I read more favorites.

Other ideas include new variations on book rec lists. We'll see how it goes there.

2018 Reading Goals:

1) Read at least one hundred books. I usually always start my number goal at one hundred because I usually make that goal. Around July I may look at it and what I'm reading and make the number higher.

2) Genre focus of the year: Poetry

So this year's genre/section that I want to focus on and really jump into is poetry. This is very much out of my comfort zone. I've never even taken a class on it. But I want to read it. So be prepared to see more poetry books and my awkward rambling as I try to figure out just what makes good poetry anyway....

Some poets/poetry books you can expect to see:

Sappho
Emily Dickinson's poems
Some of the epic poems such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
T. S. Elliot
Robert Frost
Dorothy Parker
Howl and Other Poems by Alan Ginsburg
Maya Angelou
Milk and Honey and some of the more modern poetry collections including some this year that look interesting.

3) Author focus of the year: The Bronte Sisters

This year, the author whose complete backlist I want to get through are the Bronte sisters. Now, I've read the two major ones: Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. But I haven't read any of the others, including Anne Bronte. So this year, expect to see a lot of the Bronte Sisters on this blog.

4) Read at least one play a month

I definitely want to continue reading plays as I enjoyed them a lot last year. Some I hope to get too this year include: The Crucible by Arthur Miller (no, never read this one in HS), A Streetcar Named Desire, Pygmalion, Our Town, Waiting for Godot and more.

5) Classics TBR List (that do not include the Brontes):

Beowulf
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavalli
The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
Candide by Voltaire
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Howard's End by E. M. Forester
Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Currently reading this one now as I actually meant to read it in 2017. Opps)
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Lord of the Flies by William Golding (no, never read this one in HS/MG either)
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
Watership Down by Richard Adams

Note: this list is subject to change as I'm fickle and life gets in the way.

And that's about it. Other then with classics I like to keep my TBR list open. I only make lists like these for classics because if I don't set a firm plan out...they never get read and I read fantasy all year long. Which is fine...but it doesn't get books off my list.