Planning for 2020

I am someone who likes to plan ahead and be purposeful in my decision making. At the end of each year I spend time reflecting on my past reading habits, and forward planning for the year ahead. Generally I gather books I want to read and stack them up in an accessible pile. I comb my bookshelves for forgotten titles, peruse lists of books that will be published in the coming year, and lodge reserve requests with my local library.

My real problem is when it comes to executing the plan. Because reading is so personal I find I am susceptible to falling off course. If I am busy at my day job with a lot of high-intensity thought work, I look for novels to escape in. I will often pick up a book and find that the time is not right to read that title. Or I may be reading something and then I head in a different direction when my library reserve becomes available, or I purchase something new.

My 'To Be Read' stack is high, and there are plenty of options there to keep me engaged. So rather than prepare a long list of books that I am going to read - only to wind up disappointed at the end of the year that I never read half of them - I am going to be free this year to follow wherever my reading takes me.

I want to remain diverse in my reading and will still focus on fiction. I have set myself an achievable target of 30 books to keep me on track. I have also set up another book Bingo board for a bit of fun.

B	I	N	G	O
19th Century Classic	First Novel in a Series	Lesser known Book  by a Famous Author	Features Strong  Female Protagonist	Short Story Collection
Essay Collection	Pre-19th Century Classic	Banned Book	Fiction Based on a True Story	Australian Literary  Prize Longlister
Book on the 1001 List	Women's Prize  Longlister	20th Century Classic	Set in the Future	New York Times Bestseller
Set in Space or at Sea	Mystery or Crime Novel	Booker Prize  Longlister	Published in 2020	Book with a  colour in title
Current Affairs / Politics	Biography  or Memoir	Set during Wartime	Poetry  Collection	Adapted into a Film/TV Show

As I plan my 2020 overseas travels, I will look for authors from those locations to deepen my understanding. As literary award longlists are released, I will choose from those titles the ones that most interest me. As new books become published, I will seek them out (yeah, I am talking about you Maggie O'Farrell) and have already put reserves on many. 

What I do know, is that I am looking forward to my adventures in reading this year!