2016 Blogging Resolutions

First off... HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope 2016 brings everyone lots of joyous time, loads of great books to read and a lot of happiness... Ooh, and no reading slumps, those pesky, horrible things!

2015 was a bit of a funny year for me, all in all, for various reasons, that I won't really go into here because YAWN! But on the blogging side I was very quiet. There were times this year where due to personal stuff as well as work, I just did not, and sometimes could not, read. I fell into slump, after slump, after bloody slump and all in all it was draining. I wanted to read for the most part of the year. I bloody love reading, evidently. But stuff was going on that just took me too far away from my own headspace to even actually escape anything. A lot of the time I just did not have the energy, and so therefore, I didn't really review many books. I didn't read as many as I had hoped I would. I set myself a target at the end of 2014 to read 100 books and in the end I managed 50. Whilst thats still not terrible, it isn't amazing either, and I felt a bit like I had lost out on so many amazing stories and characters that everyone else was enjoying, because of my life and the stuff going on.

But I've decided to let it go. I'm not going to make myself feel bad anymore. In hindsight, that may have been part of the problem. I was adding pressure to myself that I didn't need. In 2016, I have again set myself a challenge to read 100 books. That's just because it's something I've always wanted to do, but just never managed. Get into the triple figures. I see so many other bloggers do it and it makes me want to do it. It inspires me. But I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't do it. I have set myself the same target for the last four years and I haven't even come close yet. And instead of telling myself I MUST READ MORE BOOKS THAN LAST YEAR, I want to strive to just enjoy what I read, and if I read 100 or even more books in the year, then that's amazing. Well done me. If I don't, oh well, it doesn't matter.

Things have quietened down on the real life front and I'm hoping for a bit more of a peaceful 2016 with a lot less of an over-thinking brain that makes most waking moments very unenjoyable. I am, naturally I am afraid, a pessimist. Try as I might, I very often cannot see a positive of a situation. There are a lot of books I am looking forward to this year and I don't want to miss out on them, as well as new adventures I have yet to discover and covet. 

I am also doing a couple of re-reads this year that I have already planned. One spills over from last year. To re-read the Harry Potter series. I read Philosopher's Stone but then just never got around to reading the rest, although I am currently listening to the Chamber of Secrets audiobook, narrated by the incomparable Stephen Fry, when I have a bath and am enjoying it immensely. The other is a re-read of A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. It's been years since I read them last and I remember enjoying them so much, and what with the Netflix adaptation looming out there somewhere, and with Andrew from Pewter Wolf (who also inspired my Harry re-read as well) also re-reading the series I just felt that there was no better time.

So ramble over, my resolution is just to enjoy what I read. I am hoping that if I actually allow myself to enjoy it again, rather than feeling like I need to read this, I need to read that and I need to read them all yesterday to get a review up, that I will feel more liberated and review again like I used to when I used to have so much fun.