If There's One Thing You'd Change About Your Reading In 2025, What Would It Be? (11/24/24)

[Marc]

You can change one thing about your reading in 2025. This can be realistic (e.g., I would like to read more poetry) or completely fantastical (e.g., I'd like to exchange sleep for reading time with no loss in energy/health)...

What would you change if you could change one thing about your reading in 2025?

[Luke]

Having more space for truly spontaneous reading. I've gotten to the point where I can read something less than three months after I've added it to the TBR (especially if I'm the first hold on publication date), but it still leaves me feeling rather cramped. Hoping 2025 allows me to make further dents into my TBR while indulging my interests in intriguing looking new releases without too much fuss.

[Marc]

Luke wrote: "Having more space for truly spontaneous reading. I've gotten to the point where I can read something less than three months after I've added it to the TBR (especially if I'm the first hold on publi..."

That's a good one! I have a hard time finding the right balance between scheduling my reading (to tackle the massive TBR piles or to join in group discussions) and allowing for spontaneity/whim.

[Franky]

I also agree that is a good one Luke. Spontaneous reading is always needed. Sometimes I see something that someone else is reading on here and think "I've got to read that book soon!"

I think I was going to say that for 2025 I might try to be a little more willing to pull the plug on a book if I'm not enjoying it. I did it a little bit in 2024 just because I figured that there are so many books to get to and so little time. I used to be the type that would "have" to finish a book, but I don't feel as strongly about being such a completist now. So I think I will try to carry that into the next year.

[Henk]

I would love to have infinite time, like the training dojo of Dragon Ball Z. In more realistic terms, I've read the full Booker longlist this year and really enjoyed that, I'd like to do the same for the 2025 Booker. And I want to tackle a big classic, like War and Peace or the Tale of Genji.

[Lark]

I used to have more stamina for dense books. I would like to develop that ability again--the ability to concentrate on the page in front of me, and not be distracted by all the goshdarn distractions in my world, and not to want to immediately pick up something that doesn't require the same level of intense attention.

A dense book I'm reading now = A Journey to the End of the Millennium by A.B. Yehoshua. I can tell it's something I would have had more patience with at some other point in life. I'm not sure if this is an internet thing that I've lost this power to concentrate and be still with a densely written book, or if it's an old person thing.