Does the end of the calendar year impact your reading? (10/18/18)

[Marc]

As we near the end of 2018, does that influence your reading in any way? Do you plan which books you'll still try to squeeze in before the calendar flips? Do you start to think about 2019 reading goals? Do you choose reading selections influenced by the holidays or the change in seasons? Do you end up buying yourself books while gift shopping for others? Or, is this whole reading enterprise, like one-lifelong marathon in which you just try to keep a steady pace indefinitely?

[Doug]

Now that I am on GR, I try to arrange it so I will meet my Challenge by year's end, so if I am lagging behind, tend to read shorter books to catch up. At present, I am 22 books ahead of schedule, so not worried...

I also try to read at least ONE longer and more complex work... I USED to try to work in a Dickens at year's end, since that seemed the appropriate time of year for them, but no longer do that. But basically it's the same old, same old...

[Robert]

Oh wow!

Generally when December rears its head, I start tackling all the novellas and graphic novels in the TBR stack and I have a good number of those. It feels good to see the stack diminishing.

I will become an uncle very soon, which gives me an excuse to buy children's books i.e. I will definitely slip a couple into my shopping basket . My partner will give me one or two novels and I'll start those on Christmas day.

As such I do not set reading goals for the new year per se, except not to buy books so the TBR pile goes down (I've got 265 unread books - not good) , but I do notice that January is always my strongest reading month so I'll read the more difficult novels in the stack.

[Hugh]

Not really, except that in recent years I have tried to avoid having anything partly read at the end of the year. It would be impossible to start a year with a clean slate if only because Christmas adds an element of surprise.

[Neil]

In a word: no.

[Paul]

For me yes.

I tend to have already decided on my books of the year by early-mid December - so if there are any books I am particularly looking forward to, I often save them to January to kick off the New Year with a bang.

I also don't find Christmas generally very conducive to reading - family time, holidays, less commuting / business travel.

[Neil]

I should explain. Apart from joining in with reading a few long lists, I deliberately don’t set any reading targets for the year. Also, I don’t have any kind of reading plan. I have a TBR list, but most books I end up reading are not on that list because they come to my attention just as I finish the one before. The TBR list is more of a “here’s something to read if you run out of books” list.

The main reason for this is that I want to keep my reading purely for pleasure and I know myself well enough to know that setting targets would reduce the pleasure. I rarely know which book I will read next until I start it. Even when reading a long list, the order is undetermined.

Because I take a very footloose and fancy free approach, the upcoming year end is irrelevant for my reading.

[Paul]

As a related aside, for the first time for ages I've actually run out of new things to read. Decided to reduce my physical TBR pile down to zero before I bought anything new - with the consequence I ought to have foreseen that when I left for work this am there was nothing left unread. Good opportunity to re-read the two GS shortlisted Booker books though in preparation for Wednesday's author readings.

(and yes if I was keener on ebooks the problem could be instantly solved)

[Neil]

My approach to reading and to ebooks fit well together. I can finish a book at 9.30pm with no idea what I will read next, but then decide and be reading by 9.45pm!

Also, I have discovered the joys of re-reading which gives me more to aim at (unlike those who get rid of a book as soon as they have read it).

That said, I do currently have a vague plan because there are three Goldsmith’s books that I have only read once, and I do intend to read them again before the prize is announced.

[Hugh]

I rarely have a reading plan, but I usually have a pretty good idea of how to prioritise the to-read shelf - generally anything with a fixed deadline (group reads and shortlists etc) tends to get prioritised, and after that it is whatever has been sitting on the shelf for longest. Both are subject to my male/female author alternation rule. This plan does not allow any time for re-reading, but I hope to find more time for that in a few years time post-retirement.

[David]

Neil wrote: "I should explain. Apart from joining in with reading a few long lists, I deliberately don’t set any reading targets for the year. Also, I don’t have any kind of reading plan. I have a TBR list, but..."

Thanks for saving me the time to explain what I do. It sounds nearly identical to your answer!

[Jess]

I found that I was much more motivated by challenges at the start of the year and chose my reading based on prompts. Now that all my favourite prompts are done I am reading more by mood and tackling long reads that I avoided earlier in the year.

[Marc]

The last couple of years, I've usually joined a group or friends on GR reading something horror-related around Halloween, but other than that about the only thing I do year-end related, like Hugh, is try to finish up the books I've got in progress. I like starting the new year off with a clean slate. I'll set a few loose goals or there'll be series I want to finish up (Karl Ove Knausgård's My Struggle). And there'll usually be one or two authors whom I keep meaning to read that I'll prioritize.

[Antonomasia]

I have various things about aiming for round numbers and then sometimes telling myself I shouldn't focus on them so much. That can be monthly goals or near the end of the year.

But rather like Neil and Sunita I prefer to go where the mood takes me. In my case though, it can look outright contrarian, as I get enthused about some other theme just as everyone else is reading a longlist I'm also interested in talking about. At the moment I feel like there are c.100 books after which I'd feel reasonably caught up on my own interests (which I feel I neglected for too long in favour of the latest thing) and perhaps readier to embark on new works.

I certainly read seasonally. I prefer to leave books from hot countries, and set in hot weather, to read in the summer, although there are always a few exceptions. There's a Salman Rushdie I've had various copies of for 23 years which I should try and read for the Mookse group tournament in March. (And as I am not much of a hot weather person I don't like to augment it continually with words about baking heat, so this is never wall-to-wall.)

Autumn and winter is, ideally, for books from Eastern Europe, the Nordic countries and Scotland, or at least set at the same time of year. Though it was also marvellous reading the mowing scene from Anna Karenina on a lawn in summer. Longer novels typically span the seasons but because I imagine things quite vividly, it feels sensorily weird if the whole book is out of kilter, like reading a winter-set Scandinavian crime novel in the middle of summer.

Currently reading a book which begins "One morning near the end of October". I hadn't been consciously planning that. It was just one I hoped to manage within the next 6 months or so, then I looked at it a few days ago (perhaps having unconsciously remembered) and the time was right.

[Nadine in California]

Every year I swear that I'll end the year reading a big fat book that I've been putting off, but I have about a 50% follow through record. This year, that book is from my Restless Books subscription, Captivity.

[LindaJ^]

I can think of only one impact of the "coming of end of the year" on my reading -- I read the children's books I have selected to give to the four children - two around 10yrs and two around 5yrs old. Some years I have done a challenge in a GR group, but found that I had to have a theme other than books that have lived to long on the TBR shelf if I was going to actually succeed with the challenge. The last five years or so I have endeavored to read two or three award longlists, as well as dabble in the other award long or short lists. That I have enjoyed. One GR group I belong to has monthly themes. The only one I have taken took to heart, and still do even if the group doesn't, is "nonfiction November," which is fast approaching. In November, I plan to read only non-fiction (except for at least one of this group's picks). I will likely be distracted a couple of times, but hopefully I will make a dent in the non-fiction pile.

[Whitney]

Enjoying people’s answers here (as usual). I am inspired to find at least one book for each season on my TBR do put aside for the proper time.

The only really “time of year” reading I’m doing is the one chapter a day reading of A Night in the Lonesome October this month, which I may try and do every year.

I pick an intentionally somewhat low number for my goal reading, enough that I’m inspired to keep reading, but not so high that I forsake a longer book that may be calling my name

[Beverly]

I try to plan to be a lazy lounger between Christmas and New Years - so for me that means reading and where my moods take me.

But I start in November to double check to see if I have missed reading a couple of books that I was most anxious about but just did not get to during the year.

I have an end-of-the-year box that I am suppose to put the books I would like to finish this year and only read books from that box. But, it never works out that way and I have no qualms about picking up any book that strikes my fancy!

[Nadine in California]

Whitney wrote: "The only really “time of year” reading I’m doing is the one chapter a day reading of A Night in the Lonesome October this month, which I may try and do every year. ..."

What a lovely idea - I may try that next year :)

[Drew]

Doug wrote: "Now that I am on GR, I try to arrange it so I will meet my Challenge by year's end, so if I am lagging behind, tend to read shorter books to catch up. At present, I am 22 books ahead of schedule, s..."

This is the first year I've done this. When I complete my challenge, I'm looking forward to tackling a nice long read on a train trip.

[Lark]

It really matters to me somehow what the LAST book is that I read in the year, as well as what the FIRST book I read is in the next year. Choosing those two books is deeply important on some level, almost like a prayer ceremony for my very own biblio-religion.