New Year’s Resolutions! The (Kind Of) Halfway Mark...

Where has this year gone? It only seems like a minute ago that I was waking up on New Year's Day and wondering how things were going to go this year. One house move, a new baby and a massive pile of unread books later...

Other bloggers have been marking 2010's halfway point by highlighting their favourite (and not so favourite) books of the year so far. I can only dream of being as committed as them, preferring instead to point you guys at the '2010' tag and letting you lot get on with reading about what I liked and what I didn't. However, reading their posts reminded me of a cold day back in January where I foolishly made some New Year's Resolutions for the things that I wanted to achieve on the blog in 2010. Halfway through the year seemed like as good a time as any to revisit these and see how I'd done (or not, as the case may be).
Here goes... Italicised comments are those made in January by myself.

1) To finally finish reading 'Viriconium'

I came so unstuck with my plans to read this book last year but I still want to finish it off. If (and when) I do finish 'Viriconium', this resolution will change to reflect books that I've gone out and bought rather than been sent and we'll see how many of those I get through (I'm looking at 'The Anubis Gates' and 'Bone Song' as I'm writing this).

Well, I finally managed this, finishing the book back in April. The focus is now on 'The Anubis Gates' with possibly either Vandermeer or Moorcock to follow. Lets see how many purchased books (or ones that were presents) I can get through before the end of the year...

2) To interview more authors for the blog.

This is a tricky one as coming up with interview questions is all about inspiration with me, if I don't get it then it ain't happening! I do enjoy interviews though so we'll have to see if that inspiration strikes...

My last author interview was also back in April and I didn't do too badly before that in terms of interviews. There have been a few guest blogs since then (which kind of count, I think...) but no interviews; all my inspiration is going on keeping the baby amused right now. If I can get my interviewing mojo back then something might happen in the near future...

3) Read thicker books as well as the slimmer ones.

A lot of good books went unread last year thanks to my doing most of my reading on the train to work. If I can be sure of getting a seat a little more often then you might just see reviews for books like 'The Gathering Storm' and 'Dust of Dreams'...

Are you kidding me? There are no seats on the train, that just doesn't happen. And you can forget about me finding the time to read thicker books at home (at least right now). It's another case of 'lets see if I can read a couple by the end of the year'...

4) Get more involved in the 'Blogosphere'

There is so much good discussion out there and I really want to be more of a part of it this year (life got in the way last year...) I was gutted to miss out on posting for 'Smugglivus', for the Book Smugglers, over Christmas as well and don't want to miss out again! 2010 is going to be a busy one in other ways but the plan is hopefully to get more involved in places online other than this one.

It's funny how most of these resolutions seemed to be going ok until the baby came along... I've got plans to get more involved (and I'm casting envious looks at the group effort going on at the SFF Masterworks blog)but it's a bit of nightmare staying on top my own blog at the moment!

5) Vary my reading.

I'm not sure what this one means at the moment; I suspect it will be a case of whatever catches my eye at any particular time. I want the blog to be about what I enjoy in the genre but also about trying stuff that I wouldn't normally look at. Do I sense another 'Paranormal Romance Week' coming on? Maybe...

As various things have built up over the last few months, my reading has invariably turned towards the kind of things that I know I'll like rather than stuff that I wouldn't normally look at. Yep, I'm a comfort reader right now and that goes some way towards explaining the number of positive reviews on here just recently. I don't know if I'm quite ready for another 'Paranormal Romance Week' but I am getting to the point where the comfort zone is something to get out of rather than just sit in...

6)The Resolution with no catchy sentence...

Every year is an important one for the blog; not only is it about subject matter that I love but it's also been about creating something that I can look at and be proud of (even though I can see the faults all too clearly!)This year is going to be another big one on that particular score; it's a hard one to pin down with specifics but it's certainly something that I'm always keeping an eye on...

This is a tough one to call. The blog isn't in the shape I'd like it to be right now but, all things considered, it's actually doing better than I thought bearing in mind the lack of time that I've had to spend on it. It's looking good, in my eyes, but I want to make it better. Hopefully I'll be a little happier with it at the end of the year...

Well, that's the state of my resolutions so far and I'm actually looking forward to seeing if I can improve on things over the next few months. How about you though? Where are you at with your reading resolutions for 2010? All comments welcome... :o)