Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Happy 2014!

I feel like even-numbered years are better than odd-numbered years for me. Don't ask me why. I don't even know if I have any evidence from previous years to back that up. But I get excited when an even-numbered year comes around on January 1 because I just have this feeling that it's going to be a good one. Not that 2013 wasn't good - I got married, which was good! :) - but there were some other things in 2013 that could have been better, and I feel like 2014 will be better. I've made some resolutions, in case you're curious:

- Lose weight. Because this is kind of standard, and also because I do need to. Maybe 10-15 lbs. Good start.

- Blog more. I keep saying this. But I do want to blog more, and blog more regularly.

- Blog differently. Because just repeatedly saying "I want to blog more" clearly hasn't fixed anything, since I only put up 3 posts in December. December is a busy month, but that's still shameful. I've realized that feeling like I need to post reviews often starts to weigh on me, because I'm one of those people that kind of shut down under a long to-do list. With a flawed reasoning along the lines of, "omg I have so much to do, if I just did something instead of sitting here thinking about how much I have to do, part of it would go away... but there is too much to do and I don't know where to start so I'm just going to do nothing." So maybe I won't try to do so many reviews. Maybe I'll post more news stories, or more discovery posts where I share new books I've found. Because I get as much happiness out of finding new books and drooling over covers and making collections of books with similar features as I do actually reading them and reviewing them.

- Choose books differently. Because my NetGalley habits have gotten a little out of control. I started requesting every new book that popped up that I was vaguely interested in, because I wanted to keep up with all the new stuff coming out. I did the NetGalley Wellness Challenge because I fully intended to read and review all the books I request, and I wanted to shape up my profile to get approvals from some of those big publishers that haven't let me into their club yet. However, as much as I hate to say it, I don't just read. I have a full-time job, among other obligations that suck time away from reading. So I found that keeping up with all my requests was not easy. And, looking at my To Read list which is still a mile long, clearly I did not do a very good job. And some of those books on that list... I hate to admit this, but I'm not even that excited to read them. So I need to start choosing differently. From now on, I'm only requesting books that I'm freaking dying to read. If I don't dance in my chair when I see a book pop up on NetGalley, I'm not requesting it - I'll wait till I can buy it or get it from the library to read it. And on that note, I'm going to do more buying/librarying. Because there are a lot of books that are already out (and have been out for a while - like, in some cases, years) that I am freaking dying to read! And I feel like I can't read them because I need to get through all these other books (that I'm not necessarily freaking dying to read) first. Which is frustrating. And I feel like I'm missing out on good books. Which is really frustrating. So. Change of strategy.

I guess that about sums it up. So I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes ever and a wish that you have a happy and wonderful new year!


“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art  write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”

     ― Neil Gaiman

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