New Year's Bookish Resolutions

I have never been a New Year's resolve-y sort of person (possibly because I'm far too lazy to have much resolve in the first place). I don't have the discipline for diets or exercise, and my favorite hobbies are eating baked goods and sitting down with a book until my spine curves into a c-shape and my muscles dissolve into pudding. I never do hard numbers for reading goals (see why here). I go with the flow, man. Peace and love and baked goods.

But this year, for the first time in my whole life, I FEEL RESOLVE-Y.

I think I actually AM going to chisel some resolutions into stone (or the internet, which is even more permanent than stone in some ways). By posting them, and having you all read it, I'll have no choice but to at least attempt them with some amount of resolve. And I'll ask you all to shame me if I let them all pass me by.

I mean, I'm not going to consider myself a failure if I don't achieve them all with full marks and gold stars, and if you're doing resolutions, I urge you not to think that way either. You're only a failure if you don't try, or if you don't allow yourself to stop something which is hurting you. If your resolutions add colossally to your stress, let them go; but if you're too scared to reach for them, REACH, I SAY.

Okay. That was far too much sincerity for me. ONTO THE RESOLUTIONS.

1. Read more

Yes, this is as close to a forced reading count as I can give myself. 2016 was one of my lowest reading years in a long time, and while I had several good reasons (I wrote more words this year than I ever have done ever!), a lot of it was simple laziness/my dear and personal friendship with Netflix. A lot of books I was foaming at the mouth to get to I simply put off. BUT NOT NEXT YEAR. No, next year I will READ THE THINGS. Not all the things, obviously. But I would like to make a more concerted effort to flip my laptop closed and flip a book open.

For the first time ever, I did actually set a Goodreads yearly goal (100 books), but that's mostly to shame myself into actually logging all the books I read onto Goodreads, which is something I'm woeful at. But hopefully it'll also give me the kick in the pants to, well, read more!

2. Blog more

Same as above, really, just substitue reading for blogging. CLOSE NETFLIX. OPEN BLOGGER. WRITE THE WORDS. DO THE THING.

3. Write more discussion posts

I loooooove discussion posts the mosty-most and I have MANY OPINIONS and wish to inflict them on all of you more often

4. CROSS POST MY REVIEWS GOOD GOD GILLIAN

I am the laziest laze but my conscience is starting to gnaw at me

5. Update my review archive

WHICH I HAVEN'T DONE SINCE JANUARY 2015 OH MY GOD DON'T LOOK AT ME

6. Undisclosed writing-related goal

MEEP I'm really putting the pressure on myself to do scary things this year and this is definitely the scariest one

7. Get back into bookstagram

I don't think I've posted a single pic since I moved into my new house, which is MADNESS because my new house is much more photogenic! That stupid algorithm really messed with my love of Instagram. HEY IG IF YOU'RE LISTENING PLEASE GET BLOODY RID OF THE ALGORITH OH MY SWEET LORD

8. More art

I want to brush the dust of my Society6 and polish my Tumblr and my Redbubble and basically get MORE SERIOUS about doing the artsy fartsy thing, because I really love it

9. Meet more blogger bookish types

SAY HI TO ME, I SAY HI BACK, I'M VERY FRIENDLY AND PAINFULLY SOCIALLY AWKWARD

10. Read more diversely

I don't thing I'm going to sign up for any specific categories, but I'm going to make a more concerted effort than I have done in the past. I'm naturally drawn to diverse reads, but I want to actively review more of them.

And then of course, there's the life stuffs: take care of myself, exercise dear god Gillian you can do it, defeat Nazis, fight evil, ascend the throne, capital R Rebel. The usual.