Reading Plans for 2023, Book Goals

[Ian Fortytwo]

I want to read some Charles Dickens in 2023.

 

[Extollager]

2023 will soon be over. Does anyone want to comment on his or her reading for this year?

Looking at my intentions -- I did read quite a bit of Walter de la Mare's poetry and short stories. Much there that I liked a lot, and I mean to continue with him. Otherwise my actual reading didn't align closely with my thoughts a year ago about the coming year. Just one Shakespeare play -- Hamlet -- read, though I'm going to begin Much Ado about Nothing yet this evening; but one play per quarter I didn't manage. I intend to do that next year, though.

 

[Elentarri]

My only plan for 2023 is to read more of the physical books on my shelves, instead of prioritizing library books, borrowed books, e-books, or audiobooks. And then recycle the ones I am probably not going to re-read, instead of just keeping them (running out of shelf space).

Hmmmm.... well... ... ... I did read more of my physically owned books (but not as much as I was hoping), but I got distracted by shiny new books, and other interesting things in terms of borrowed/library/audio/ebooks. But I did toss out quite a few read books I wasn't going to read again.

Next year, I plan to read Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (it's got 366 chapters or something like that - one chapter a day - but I don't think I can spread a book out over a whole year), make a start on the "Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft" anthology I have (it's been sitting around forever), a few Shakespeare plays (I still have all the history plays to go through), either Bleak House or Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens (also sitting around for a while), and then make a dent in the 51 unread history books sitting on my shelf. Add in a few science and other random fiction books. I still plan to read more of the stuff I already have, instead of going looking for other reading material, but I don't think that is going to happen.

 

[hitmouse]

No formal plans. See what turns up. I get recommendations from Chrons and from newspaper reviews. I also like second-hand bookshops as destinations. I usually spot something interesting. Luckily lots of those close to where I live, including Hay-on-Wye. I have a pile of cheapo 60s & 70s SF novels picked up in this way in 2022 which I will chug through in 2023.
I am going to Paris in February and will look for inspiration in Shakespeare & Co.
Also another trip to Kolkata in May, which has a vast and very funky used book market in College Street.

Just before Christmas I tracked down an affordable copy of the NESFA The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith (1993) ed. James Mann, which is in the post. Looking forward to that, and filling the gaps in my reading of Smith's short fiction.

My reading has meandered this year.

As per my plans, above, I went to Paris. Shakespeare & Co was a bust. There was queue outside even in early February, and one had to buy tickets, so I think its existence as an alternative bookshop has been completely subverted by tourism. It is opposite Notre Dame and now sells S&Co fridge magnets. Disappointing but not surprising. Plenty of other good bookshops in Paris.

Kolkata was a success. It remains one of the best places to find obscure and interesting new and used books, and I have been slowly digesting a pile of literature on Bengali history, food, and culture since I got back. Looking forward to another trip in 2024. One day I would like to be there for the book fair.

 

[Randy M.]

Vague and tentative plans to tackle some books I've put off because of their length or probable difficulty. Notably a book just published, THE LIFE OF CRIME, a non-fiction history/criticism of the mystery genre by Martin Edwards, which I've just begun. I hope to also tackle LITTLE BIG by John Crowley, and maybe finally get around to his ENGINE SUMMER and NOVELTIES & SOUVENIRS, a story collection. I also hope to read more Elizabeth Hand -- CURIOUS TOYS and SAFFRON & BRIMSTONE (story collection) -- and perhaps a couple of others.

Another likely suspect is Donna Tartt's A SECRET HISTORY.

We'll see. I make great plans. Follow through is a bit less great.

I read the Edwards, and it's massive but easy reading. I may even get around to some of the books he mentions.

Beyond that, I still haven't tackled Tartt's novel, though that or In the Woods by Tana French seem likely reads to start before the end of the year and carry over into 2024.

I recently bought the Library of America edition of Joanna Russ works and I'd like to read at least the Alyx stories. I still have Tiptree's Her Smoke Rose UP Forever and Julia Phillips' biography of Tiptree in the rotation. I have vague plans to read more story collections this year. I should at least start a few of the ones I've accumulated; authors include Elizabeth Hand, John Crowley, Jeffrey Ford, Reggie Oliver, Frank O'Connor, Laura Lippman, Bruno Schulz, Tanith Lee, Helen Oyeyemi and Manly Wade Wellman, among many others. And I, too, have some Walter de la Mare around the house I should dip into, along with Robert Aickman and L. P. Hartley and Sarah Orne Jewett and Bradbury and ... argh!

There's also a trilogy by Stephen Graham Jones that intrigues me especially since his The Only Good Indians was very good.

We'll see. Past experience suggests anything I put on a to-read list will probably be what I avoid reading.

 

[Extollager]

My reading has meandered this year.

As per my plans, above, I went to Paris. Shakespeare & Co was a bust. There was queue outside even in early February, and one had to buy tickets, so I think its existence as an alternative bookshop has been completely subverted by tourism. It is opposite Notre Dame and now sells S&Co fridge magnets. Disappointing but not surprising. Plenty of other good bookshops in Paris.

Kolkata was a success. It remains one of the best places to find obscure and interesting new and used books, and I have been slowly digesting a pile of literature on Bengali history, food, and culture since I got back. Looking forward to another trip in 2024. One day I would like to be there for the book fair.

I was wondering about the Grapevine India edition of the C. S. Lewis space trilogy.

The Space Trilogy: Amazon.co.uk: Lewis, C. S.: 9789356612563: Books

Buy The Space Trilogy by Lewis, C. S. from Amazon's Fiction Books Store. Everyday low prices on a huge range of new releases and classic fiction.

www.amazon.co.uk

Is this illicit, if you know? If it isn't, is it a well-made book -- with pages in sewn signatures, etc.? I ask because (1) the trilogy is one of my favorite three books of my life, but I have only mass-market paperback editions; a well-made hardcover edition would be nice, but hardcover editions from the US and UK these days are often cheap thing, just glue-bound sheets attached to the spine of the book -- fooey!; (2) a couple of years ago I got a reprint of a 17th-century book from India that was surprisngly inexpensive for something coming from so far away and that was well-made, with sewn signatures.

 

[hitmouse]

I have not heard of Grapevine India but it appears to be a bona fide independent publishing house (albeit with a frustrating website.) Amazon India lists other CS Lewis works published by them, which are not the usual sort of bestseller knock-offs, and they come up as stocked by some independent bookshops in the UK.

 

[Extollager]

I wondered if these Lewis books were made in violation of, or outside of, US-UK copyright norms. But if the Grapevine edition of the CSL Ransom books is well made, I might buy one. I can't get enthusiastic about buying a superficially attractive but actually shoddily-manufactured new one.

 

[thunderbyrd]

i plan to read Susanna Clarke's "Ladies of Grace Adieu" sometime soon and continue to hope Gillian Flynn publishes a new novel.

 

[The Big Peat]

My reading goals such as I know them

147 books (takes me to 500 over 3 years, which is a nice number)
11 new to me fantasy authors
A second 11 as stretch goals
11 new to me non-fantasy authors
11 authors to retry
11 series to continue
6 pre-LotR pieces of fantasy


Not a whole lot of names for those goals beyond the 147, I usually only decide on them in Feb, but I might sit down and get them done sooner

At 153 books.

I tried 5 of the 11 listed new fantasy authors, 2 of the stretch goals, and 3 of the non-fantasy
Continued 6 of the series
Retried 5 authors (of what became a 22 strong list)
Got 10 out of 14 from a friend rec list that I did post this post

And... with a bit of generosity, 5 out of 6 pre-LotR pieces of fantasy.

 

[Rodders]

Well, i haven't started reading from home and i haven't read A Canticle for Leibowitz.

I've been cyling well and have been listening to Iain M. Banks's Culture books. I think i've read two books each month.

I got back into 2000AD in quite a big way this year (partly, i think to immerse myself in a loved fictional "universe", caused by my absolute disapointment in Disney Star Wars.) I've started re-reading the collected comics with DR & Quinch and the Judge Dredd Case Files. It's been great fun, but i need to find more time.