Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had an amazing year and that you did great with your plans and resolutions.
Last year I had 9 rather ambitious bookish resolutions so if you want to see how I did you can read about it here.
This year I want to tone down my ambition, so here are my 5 simple bookish resolutions for 2020:
- Support independent bookstores
- Adopt new reading habits
- Read guilt-free
- Re-read my favorite books
- Try writing something
Support independent bookstores
Rise of Amazon, Book Depository and other online sites that sell books really cheap and/or offer free worldwide delivery is making a huge dent in sales of traditional bookstores. Supporting independent bookstores is now more important than ever.
This issue has been on my mind for a long time now but it really came into my focus after reading two amazing books about booksellers and bookshops, The Diary of Bookseller and The Bookish Life of Nina Hill.
Even though one is non-fiction (The Diary of a Bookseller) and the other is fiction (The Bookish Life of Nina Hill) both books beautifully depicted the reality of modern book-buying habits.
People are much rather buying books online than actually going to bookstores. Why? Because Book Depository is cheaper, has a better selection and brings books straight to your door.
What people often forget is that bookstores are actually employing people. These people probably love books as much as you and are very eager (and paid) to talk about books with you. Maybe your local bookstore doesn’t have the best selection of books but it’s an important landmark for the community. Just imagine all those little children who are in awe when they see all those books in one place.
Yes, buying in bookstores especially in the independent ones can be a lot more expensive than just ordering books online. If you are on a tight budget and want to buy a certain book online you should do it. I’m not saying you should always buy all books in independent bookstores all I’m saying is that you should consider supporting your local bookstore if you have means to do so.
This is probably one of my most important resolutions for this year and it’s closely connected to the one below.
Adopt new reading habits
Every year I try to buy fewer books than the previous year and every year I fail. Every year I also pledge that I will read all the books on my TBR list but that also never happens. This year I’m determined that I will not fail. I will buy fewer books and read more books from my TBR.
Here are some tips that will help you adopt new reading habits:
- You don’t need every new release no matter how much the book is hyped about. There are so many amazing books that are coming out this year but you don’t need them all.
- If you decide that you really want that new release you should think about buying it on Kindle (as an e-book), the author will still get money but you won’t need a new bookshelf at the end of the year.
- Probably the best and cheapest way of reading is by joining a library. Not only it’s a great way of supporting your local community, but it’s also very aesthetically pleasing to just sit there, read, or study.
- Another fun and easy way of discovering new books is through book subscription apps like Scribd or Bookmate. For the price of 8 euros per month, you can read and/or listen to thousands of books. It’s really a great deal and they usually have new releases.
- And last but probably the most important tip is to read the books you already have at home. This is a very easy way to save some money and purge your TBR pile.
Read guilt-free
We all became bookworms because we love reading. We love reading books, holding books, smelling books, buying books, etc. But lately, I noticed a concerning trend of book shaming people.
Many of my real-life and online friends often tell me that they have been ashamed to buy, read, rate or review a certain book. They are afraid that booksellers or their Goodreads friends will perceive them as stupid if they see them buying or rating certain books. And that’s really shameful.
You should buy, read, rate and review whatever book you want. There’ve always been book snobs, and they will always exist, so you have to stop paying attention to them and enjoy reading whatever you want.
Re-read my favorite books
I’ve been wanting for ages to re-read some of my favorites: Wheel of Time series, Mistborn trilogy, Harry Hole series, but there are always some new exciting books to read.
Last year I managed to re-read The Lord of the Rings and it’s was fantastic, even better than I remember. 🙂
So this year I really want to re-read Harry Hole series. It’s an incredible series of crime novels written by Norwegian author Jo Nesbø. I highly recommend reading this series if you are interested in thriller/murder mystery books. The plot of the books is mainly set in Oslo, Norway where the main character Harry Hole is working as a police officer. If you are looking for something new or different you should definitely pick up these books.
Try writing something
We bookworms are always reading but rarely writing. I have read hundreds of books during my life but other than writing my journals rather regularly I don’t write that often.
This year I want to write more, especially here on the blog. I also want to write in all the languages that I know because I’m usually writing only in English.
That’s it for my simple bookish resolutions for 2020. I would love to know what are your bookish resolutions so tell me in the comments below.
See you soon, M.