Happy 2020, one and all! How have you guys been?
Things are wonderful on my end. I’ve done a crapton of traveling (quarterly visits to Tokyo, literally). A lot of crafting was done over the holidays; I wanted most of my gifts to be handmade so I’ve been swimming in more yarn than I can crochet lately. I’ve experienced so many amazing things from an intense 3-day anisong concert to meeting my favorite Japanese stage actors. My 2019 life had been very good.
My 2019 reading life, however, er… that kind of suffered. I only read 81 things last year, some of those are manga re-reads or just speeding through a series to add to my numbers. Since I was traveling, I barely had any reading done. There were weeks where I didn’t even look at a book, much less pick one up to read it. I did finish an audio book while in Japan only because my lease on that was coming up. I know 81 books is nothing to laugh about but in general, it was a rather weak reading year for me. I did enjoy quite a few books but towards the end of the year, I just wasn’t reading.
This year, I want to change that. Not only to read more but also to read more physical books. I, too, was sucked into the whole Book Outlet and books for cheap hype. Across used bookstores, thrift shops, and online sellers, I’ve accumulated a lot of physical books. (Hah, my yarn stash is starting to sing the same tune.) However, I also have e-readers and quite frankly, they are much more convenient to tote around on the go. I don’t think I even read a physical book all of last year apart from some light novels and manga. I already told myself that if I were to buy a book, it should be either signed or less than $10 brand new. (LOL, let’s see how long I can stick to that.)
Anyway, I don’t usually do this IRL but here are my 2020 READING RESOLUTIONS. I can’t guarantee anything but I am determined to stick to these few. It’s about time I get back into reading because it’s fun and I enjoy it very much.
For the first one, I already mentioned it: Reading more PHYSICAL books. I’m still going to read on my e-reader and listen to audio books but I will make an effort to read an actual book for a change. I have piles and piles in my room. I do have a book sleeve I bought YEARS ago and I want to be one of the cool kids that use theirs. And I honestly want to buy more of those book sleeves.
Speaking of piles of books, I want to try to Unhaul the books that either I’m no longer interested in or those that I didn’t like. That will then motivate me to read an actual book in order to decide whether I like that book or not. I mostly have older titles because I never really kept up with what’s new. I’m overwhelmed as it is haha. So I hope that will make this whole unhauling business a little bit easier.
Next on my list is to Review books on GoodReads. “I like it” or “It was meh” don’t cut it anymore. I used to word vomit on some titles – even blogging about them here – but lately, I’ve been uninspired. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve read quite a few amazing (and awful) books but none have fired me up enough to sit down and spend time to write about it. It’s one of those “I can’t be bothered” moments. I do have something to say but… I was lazy, I guess. If my falling from the face of this blog was any indication. 😉
One thing that I think was to blame for my disinterest in reviewing stuff was my goal of completing reading challenges. I would sometimes pick a book just so I can fulfill an item off the prompts. So it felt like it was forced rather than me really wanting to read something. Or instead of reading something I like, I’d reading something else just to cross that item off the list. Am I the only crazy one who feels this way? I’m definitely overthinking things, right? So in that vein, my next resolution is to Not join annual reading challenges or readathons. I must say that I enjoyed the smutty reading challenge a lot! But while trying to complete that, I got so overwhelmed by the millions of romance books in existence. I tend to read oddly specific tropes, usually back-to-back, and I end up losing track of my reading plans.
I may participate in Tome Topple since that’s more chill and it gives me an excuse to tackle a 500-page book. Not that it’s needed. But that readathon is quite fun and the organizers are really supportive. So it’s not a total write off. Just… the less pressure the better.
I also want to go back to my yearly resolution of reading more from Asian authors, especially Japanese ones. I have quite a collection of Japanese fiction and I want to make a dent on that pile. I’m open to reading from other Asian authors but my priority is definitely Japanese ones. This includes light novels and manga.
What else? Oh, not really reading related but I do want to Write More. Not just blog posts and reviews, but in general. Honestly, I’ve sort of neglected my bullet journal for about a month now (vacation is fun but everything IRL takes a backseat lol). That used to be my main writing outlet. I also used to write fan fiction. I have so many ideas still! But right now, I don’t think I’ll post them anywhere. I would rather write them down in a notebook (I specifically bought a Moleskine squared grid notebook for this purpose last year)… and probably hide them for the rest of eternity. Hey, at least I got it out of my brain!
I think that’s it. I’m sorta back in the game. Maybe. Let’s see how long I can keep this up.
If you’re curious about the other stuff that I’m doing, the best place to keep up with me is my Instagram, I guess. And Twitter, if you’re interested.
So I guess, I’ll see you when I see you!
Shelf Pickings 