Reading Goals 2015

Yes, it took me an entire month to get motivated (er – organized) enough to write about my reading goals for 2015.  First, you need to know that I take reading VERY SERIOUSLY. I’m a little neurotic about keeping track of what I’ve read. I started a spreadsheet in 2009 – yes, a spreadsheet. I should have just used Goodreads. That would have been so much more fun.

Goal One: Track all of the books I’ve read on Goodreads and actually give ratings and reviews to them within that community.

(I am so grateful for all of the reviews people have posted for my novel so far!)

I read a lot. Reading—especially from the same genre I’m writing in—is incredibly helpful in fueling my creative process. I have read as many as 100 books a year, but when I’m spending hours and hours writing and editing manuscripts, that number necessarily goes down considerably. Last year I managed to finish 63 books. I hope to do better than that in 2015!

Goal Two: Read 80 books.

I hope I’m not being overly ambitious with this goal, given that I am actively marketing two different middle-grade novels and writing the sequel to Circle of Nine. We’ll see how I do.

Goal Three: Read books I already own or get them from the library!

I own stacks and stacks of books I haven’t read, and these stacks tip over each time I try to find something in my closet. It’s annoying. I need to quit adding to these stacks--at least temporarily. That is going to be hard for me. When I walk into a bookstore to browse, I always, always buy something. It’s so hard to resist! I am prepared to already admit defeat on this purchasing problem I seem to have. (There are worse things I could do – right??) 

So what’s on my list?

Books by my favorite authors:

JD Robb (Nora Roberts)

Sarah Addison Allen

Catherine Coulter

Mary Higgins Clark

Maeve Binchy (sadly, her last novel)

Jude Deveraux

Suzanne Brockmann

Harlen Coben

Maggie Stiefvater

Laurie Halse Anderson

Ellen Hopkins

Diana Gabaldon

Janet Evanovich

Deborah Harkness

Two biographies (so far)

Brooke Shields’ There was a Little Girl

Beyond Belief, the story of growing up inside Scientology by Jenna Miscavige Hill

Books I should have read long ago

Love in the Time of Cholera

The Turn of the Screw

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Gathering Blue (Lois Lowry)

The Wind in the Willows

Don Quixote

A Hundred Years of Solitude

Great Expectations

Newer books I should have already read

Gone Girl

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Novels for Teens and Tweens

Savvy and Scumble by Ingrid Law

The Alchemyst Series by Nicholas Flamel

The Maze Runner series by James Dashner

Every book that John Green has ever written!

The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier

Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin

Nest by Esther Ehrlich

Revolution by Deborah Wiles

I’ll Give you the Sun by Jandy Nelson

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Mortal Heart by Robin Lafevers

The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson

Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira

How it Went Down by Kekla Magoon.

Oh my Gosh! This list is getting long already, and I haven’t even gotten to the awesome novels by fellow Wisconsin Young Adult authors.

Bridget Birdsall

Lori M. Lee

Angie Stanton

Kelly Risser

Jessica Salyer

Liz Czukas

Kelley Lynn

Sandy Goldsworthy

Have I hit 80 yet with this list? Follow my progress and reviews on Goodreads. I’ll also feature select reviews here on my blog!

Leave a comment below and tell us about the great books you’ve been reading!