Bookish Resolutions

It's the new year, which means it's time to reflect on the things I'd like to change about myself. New year, new me and all that. I'm not typically one to go in big for New Year's resolutions because I'm well aware of my commitment issues, and even though I always have the best of intentions, ultimately I know big resolutions are destined to fail for me, and I prefer to not feel like a failure by February.

That doesn't mean that I haven't been putting some thought into things that I'd like to do better in the new year, and many of them are related to this blog, at least tangentially. And because of my commitment issues, I'm trying to avoid absolutes in these resolutions (for example, instead of saying I'm going to lose 50 pounds in 2019, instead I'd say I'm going to lose some weight. Although neither of those is a specific resolution for me this year). So what am I resolving to do better this year?

First of all, I want to interact with other blogs more, and not just on my favorite weekly memes. I've been thinking about this one for a few weeks now and I really want to devote some time every day to reading reviews on other blogs and commenting. This sort of ties in with Elgee Writes' Comment 4 Comment Challenge, but expands it some in that I'm wanting to take some initiative in starting the comments and not just reacting and returning them when they are left on my blog. And this past year I have had some really bad months where reacting and returning comments are concerned, so I know I have a very sketchy foundation to repair on that score. But I'm resolving to work on that.

I would also like to find a new weekly meme to participate in. I really enjoy doing Top Ten Tuesday, the Book Blogger Hop on Friday, and Stacking the Shelves on Saturday, and those are posts that I can typically build somewhat in advance (although StS comes down to the wire) and have prepped so my blog isn't completely dead if I'm swamped with work. And I'm not sure exactly what type of meme I want to participate in, but I'm pretty much ruling out The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings because they both are on Friday and I already have the Book Blogger Hop (although I may start including those in my BBH posts like I've seen other bloggers doing, I'm not sure). I want something for an empty day though.

And while we're talking about my blog having dead times because of being swamped with work, I'd also like to do better at writing reviews shortly after I've finished a book (even when I'm swamped). In the past couple of months I've been trying to get reviews written for all of my backlist books and finding that I had forgotten too much about my feelings about the books and needed to read them again (this mostly happened with audiobooks so at least I can listen to them while I'm doing housework, but it's still a problem). And while I want to avoid posting more than one review per day, and also prefer to not post reviews until a book's release day, I can still get the reviews ready to go in advance, which will also help prevent dead times on my blog, or at least reduce their duration.

Finally, I want to do a better job of keeping up with the few monthly memes that I partake in (Platypire Read-A-Thon, which I'm not even sure any of the Platypires do anymore so I may highjack their graphics and make it my own because that's what a good arch-nemesis would do; Mail Call; and State of the ARC). This is a horrible resolution for me to be making right now, because it means I need to get these posts built like right now, and I am currently swamped with work that I got behind on while my kids have been on winter break from school. But because simply doing better doesn't mean I have to do better immediately, this is still ultimately achievable, so it's making the list too.

So those are the things that I would like to do better this year. Have you made any bookish resolutions, either related to blogging or just reading in general? - Katie

*If you're a blogger, feel free to leave a link to a recent blog post with your comment below. Maybe I'll figure out how to add something like CommentLuv to my blog sometime this year too, but until then, just drop a link with your comment.*