Last week we shared some of our favorite reads from 2023. This week, we continue our tradition of setting some New Year’s resolutions—specifically about our reading habits! Whether it’s a list of particular books we hope to read, or some regular reading practices we hope to establish, here’s what we’re hoping for in the year to come.
Jonathan H. Liu
Despite having fallen short in the past two years, I’m going to set my goal of 150 books again this year. As always, I make a note that the number includes graphic novels and kids’ books (but not picture books). I figure that if I’m getting close to that number but not quite, then it’s a nice number to stretch for.
Apart from just the number, I’m hoping to read more of the graphic novels I already have. I had put that in my resolution last year but just didn’t actually get to a lot of them after all. Perhaps what I should try is setting aside a regular time each day or each week to go down to my basement office area, and just sit and read. It’s hard, because my computer is there and when I come here I get tied up either managing emails or writing, and I don’t just sit down and read. But I have this lovely chair (seen above) that my wife got me for Christmas in 2021 (it’s a refurbished chair from the Portland airport) and it’s next to all of these books—you can see that the bookshelves are overflowing so much that I’ve got boxes and piles on the floor next to them). So one resolution in 2024 is that I’ll actually make better use of this space and enjoy some more books… which will then help me enjoy the space more because I’ll actually be able to see the floor again!
I don’t know that I have a lot of specific books on my list to read this year like I did last year, but I do have an advance copy of Mike Chen’s upcoming A Quantum Love Story. I was first introduced to Mike Chen back in 2019 when he wrote Here and Now and Then, in which the time traveler was also a dad and had to wrestle with some really tangled questions about reality and choices. Since then, he’s published a new novel at the beginning of each year and I’ve been enjoying them, but this one is a return to time travel so I’m particularly excited.
One series that I just never got around to is The Spiderwick Chronicles. I think my kids were just not at the right age when it first came out and so I missed them, and then never went back to catch up, despite the fact that I’m a big fan of Tony DiTerlizzi’s work. (I even interviewed Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi for the 10th anniversary!) It celebrated its 15th anniversary last year and I’ve got a set of the new editions, so maybe it’s finally time that my now 10-year-old and I dive into this world that I know so many readers have enjoyed.
Mariana Ruiz
I am hoping to read everything by Stephen King, from his old novels to his most recent work, and I am about 80% through, because I am including some collaborations now as The Talisman and Gwendy’s Final Task. Since he is always writing, I am always trailing behind. In my favorite books I will highlight Fairy Tale, of course!
I want to continue focusing on diverse voices in YA and comics, by different authors from the US and abroad. Brazilian comic artists, Argentinian novels, works in translation from Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe. I am glad to be on that path as it has opened very interesting venues and helped me get to know different indie publishing houses. My wish, as always, is to be rewarded with a translation of a Bolivian Children’s book for this year. We haven’t got a translation for the last 20 years and that is a real shame. Representation and diversity can open new ways of thinking, novel ideas, and further our understanding of each other, and I am game for all of it.
I think I’ve reviewed about 120 books—from board books and comics and novels—in English alone and I am a voracious reader in Spanish too, so I don’t count the books anymore. I just treasure the ones that set fire to my mind and get to live for me forever. I read a lot of Caldecott medals for example, regardless of the year of publication, and I learned a lot about literature and storytelling every single time.
Jenny Bristol
Continuing the tradition that I began in 2020, I plan to read at least as many books as the last two digits of the year. So, this year it will be 24 books! That’s a nice round two-books-per-month rate. As usual, I have a few books in mind that I want to fit in, but whether I get to them remains to be seen.
Some books I hope to get to this year are my grandfather’s books on writing (there are either two or three, depending on whether a title got changed at one point), the third Lady Astronaut book (The Relentless Moon) by Mary Robinette Kowal which I just haven’t gotten to yet, Tom Hanks’s The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, some Moomin books, and maybe finally read His Dark Materials series. I’m sure I’ll fill in with some escapism, because that’s helpful for my mental health, but I hope I can discover some more rich middle grade fiction like I did last year. And, inevitably, at some point a book will strike my fancy or land in my lap and it will jump the line. You can follow me on Goodreads to see how quickly I’m progressing toward my goal.
Robin Brooks
I find myself in a strange position regarding reading resolutions this year. I’m happy with how last year’s resolutions went, and on balance want to do more of the same. I never set book number targets as it places too much pressure on myself to get things read and I’m always wildly over-ambitious about how many books I can read, so I’d inevitably fail.
My main ambition for 2024 is to gain traction my my new book review YouTube channel, “In the Book Garden.” This doesn’t mean reading more books, but more, thinking about what books I read and how I present them. Straight-up reviews on YouTube don’t feel like they do that well for views, whereas “XX Books you should read if…” do a lot better. Unfortunately, I don’t think I have those sorts of click-chasing shenanigans in me!
If I want to promote “In the Book Garden,” I’ll probably have to become more social media savvy. As I enter my 6th decade, this doesn’t feel like something that’s in my wheelhouse. I understand how Twitter (“X,” sorry), works but I can’t abide what Elon Musk has turned it into. I’ve tried, Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon, but I haven’t been able to get a feel for how they should work. This old dog feels like it’s trying to learn too many new tricks.
The phenomenon of “Booktok” impinged heavily on my consciousness in 2023, not least because I went to my first book event in many a year, and it was full of Booktokkers. This feels like a young person’s game. It’s certainly not for me, as a content consumer or creator. I know it’s done wonders for some author’s careers, but I’ve been unable to make any sort of meaningful connection on TikTok.
Not quite knowing how best to promote my reviews has led me into a bit of a downward spiral. Why bother reviewing, if nobody is going to read/watch them? Perhaps I’d be better off just reading more books? Reading for reading’s sake, rather than to tell everybody about it.
I do enjoy writing my long-form reviews for GeekDad, but they take up a lot of time. Would it be better to stop and use that time on some other venture – the kitchen could certainly do with a deep clean! Reviewing also makes me feel like I’m forever chasing “the next big thing.” Perhaps I should take some time to catch up on the last 10, 20, or even 100 years’ “big things.” Good literature rarely goes out of date, and there are an awful lot of great books out there!
The turn of the year sees me in something of an existential crisis. I suspect I will carry on reviewing, as I do enjoy it and I enjoy being even just a small part of the machinery of the publishing world. Time will tell, but a book arrived through the post unexpectedly today, and there was definitely a thrill as I opened the parcel to reveal an interesting book that’s not been published yet.
Are there any specific books I’d like to read in 2024? A few.
Just before Christmas, I discovered that Jasper Fforde is finally bringing us a follow-up to Shades of Grey, a book I loved when it came out, but had given up hope of the promised sequel ever arriving. Red Side Story is out in February. I even broke my “no hardbacks” rule to preorder a copy.
As I mentioned in my resolutions reflections post, I very much enjoyed reading Susie Dent’s Word Perfect last year. This year, I received her Interesting Stories About Curious Words. It doesn’t have the day-by-day structure that Word Perfect has but Susie mentions in the foreword that the book is broken down into 53 chapters, which conveniently means I can read one chapter a week (with a spare!). A new little schedule for my reading life.
Finally, I’m looking forward to Trials of Empire, the third book in the Empire of the Wolf series. I’ve just finished A Tyranny of Faith, the follow-up to Justice of Kings, which was one of my reads of 2023, which was also excellent, so I can’t wait to see how the series continues. This too is out in February; whether I break my no hardbacks rule twice in quick succession remains to be seen! Probably not, as then they’ll be mismatched on my bookshelf!
