I have been doing reading challenges. In 2006 I challenged myself to discover a new author every week, as many of them as possible writing in genres new to me. I was trying to pull myself out of a long reading slump, and it worked.

At the beginning of 2007 I set myself a challenge to discover 52 new mystery authors and review them and their work on my book blog. I didn't set myself a time limit, but as it happens, it has taken 2 years. I am on the last one.

Next year I want to challenge myself to read more local literature, as for the last 10 years or so my reading has been almost exclusively in English or translated into my native language. It will probably be a book-a-week challenge.

I think my reading goal will be to tackle longer works: the works that I find so intimidating due to their length, not necessarily their content:

* "And Ladies of the Club" - Helen Hoover Santmyer
* "The Historian" - Elizabeth Kostova
* "Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927..." by John M. Barry

In between, I plan on maintaining my pretty balanced approach to books - some hard, some easy, some long, some short - so long as I enjoy them, I am fine.

No, I do not. Personal reading for me is pleasure, escape and relaxation. I want to be free to read what I want when I want and toss it if it's bad. Other parts of my life have goals of one form or another-due dates, deadlines, targets-and I don't always enjoy the effort of reaching them. Sometimes those do involve "professional" reading, but I keep my pleasure reading very free.

My reading goal for 2009 is to make a dent in the 200+ TBR pile. I say this every year, of course, and it never seems to happen. I did manage to cut my book buying way back this year, but my library usage increased quite a bit to balance it out. So many books, so little time!

Lemonhead, I hope you enjoy And Ladies of the Club and The Historian as much as I did. Those are two of my favorites.

-sheriz, now THATS what I call a TBR list! Mine (at 85, but still growing) seems pathetic to yours! It is a vicious cycle, every time I cross one off two more will suddenly appear. Thank goodness the Life Expectancy Rate is growing every year!
And I too, have gone to the library a lot this year, which I hardly ever did before.

Another goal for this next year is to read some more ancient texts. Maybe even try some books on philosophy too.
CMK

No, I no longer set reading goals. I just go where my whims take me.

For 2009, though, I think I will make a resolution to not pay any attention to any "book of the moment." Occasionally one of those will turn out to be quite good, such as The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, but most seem to me to be overrated and big disappointments. If I wasn't such a hopeful sucker...!!

As always, I hope to begin reading Proust this year. There is a good and fairly recent translation into Swedish of A la recherche du temps perdu (don't know the English translation of the title). I'm always putting it off perhaps because two friends of mine were so struck with it that they joined the Proust Society independently of each other and talked of little else. I am afraid I won't be able to live up to their enthusiasm.

I never set reading goals and have no desire to do so. Reading is such pure unadulterated pleasure for me, that with an adventurous spirit, I let myself wander where fancy takes me....

Yes, but I never follow them so I suppose the answer should be no, no goals.

I like going where my whim takes me too, and I almost never keep my goals when I formalize them. I do want to read more short stories in the coming year, and take better notes on what I read since my memory is so bad. I also want to buy less and read more of my shelf-sitters at home.

Not really a reading goal, but I have made an effort to purchase only books that are really, really special and that I will certainly read again. This means that I have usually read them before I buy them. I am trying to cull my collection because I just don't have room, and I plan to move in the next year or so. I am trying to find new homes for any books that I will never read again, or that I will not be able to easily find should I decide to re-read. By this criteria, my Harry Potter books should go because I don't foresee a time when I won't be able to get them at the library. This is easier said than done. Giving away my books is so hard for me!

No goals for me except to keep reading more and more of whatever takes my fancy.

I've got a few informal goals I set for myself each year. I've always wanted to read at least 100 books in one calanda year, but I've never reached that goal:-). This year, I won't even come close. The closest I've ever come was 98 books read in 2005.

I also always have an author or two whose complete work I'm slowly working my way through (with lots of other books in between). Right now it's Cormac McCarthy and Toni Morrison. I have only one McCarthy left unread, but several Morrison's. I hope to cross both authors off my list by 2010, and find a new author to tackle.

And then I have several books that have been on my TBR list for years that I'd like to finally be able to cross off. In 2008 I read probably 10 or so books that had been on my list for a long time; in 2009 I have several more I'd like to read (including Gone with the Wind, which I've never read!).

Kelly

No goals for me although I did think I should try and read the occasional 'classic' work and towards that end I did enjoy Cranford and started John Halifax Gentleman and Wuthering Heights (but fell at the first fence with them both) and keep telling myself that I really should get into the Christmas spirit with Dickens' Pickwick Papers.
I certainly am never bothered by the quantity of books I get through.

No goals for me either. I read for pure pleasure and my only wish is that my favorite authors would write faster LOL!

Vee I never finished Cranford after it became a TV show, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Also, I keep meaning to read The Pickwick Papers, it is one of the few Dicken's novels that I have not read. Maybe if the library slows down with my requests I will pull it off the shelf. Over the years I have purchased all the classics that I want to read knowing that I will get around to them when in the mood.

Pat

I read Cranford online before I watched the TV show. I agree with you veer, the second part was better than the first. But on the whole, I have to say the book was just okay.
The TV show had a lot more in it than the book. I heard somewhere that the they (the producers or writers I assume) added in several other works of Gaskell into the show 'Cranford'. Does anyone know if that is true or not?
CMK

yes, it is. They incorporated Lady Ludlow and Mr. Harrison's Confessions.

Pat, good to have you back.
Here in the UK the BBC is showing a special edition of Cranford during the Christmas holidays. No doubt you will get it on your side of the Pond in time for Easter.

Re Dickens. Little Dorrit has just finished. Not quite in the same league as Bleak House and by the end, never having read the book, I was left somewhat confused about the parts some of the characters had played in the denouement of a very complicated plot.
Unusually it was shown in half-hour-episodes. Perhaps in the US you will watch it as a great long Dickens Fest.

-ccrdmrbks, thanks! What a peculiar thing to do. There were several lagging parts in the story, so I suppose they felt they ought to make it more exciting for film.

-veer, is the Cranford you are talking about a different version than the one with Judy Dench?
I keep meaning to ask you if you saw 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles'. Was it any good? I am very curious about it. Hopefully it won't take too long to come on TV over here.
CMK

My reading goals are to keep up with the readings of my 2 book groups, on top of my full-time job (which involves lots of reading) and myriad activities and interests. I do try to shoe-horn in some unstructured reading on the side (my TBR piles are towering), but there's never enough time to do as much as I'd like....

CMK the Cranford that I am referring to IS the one with Judi Dench. They added the extra 'stories' to bulk it out.
Over here we didn't watch it on TV as a film but as hour-long episodes shown over several (maybe six) weeks. This is the usual way for these types of dramas to be televised.

No I didn't watch Tess despite some of it having been shot in this area. I find Hardy so miserable, especially this one . . . although nothing is quite so depressing as Jude the Obscure.

I read all three of the Cranford books after the TV production because I liked it so much. I think the TV program was better than any single one of the books. By incorporating the different characters, it became more of a village story than the books were.

We got it as a Masterpiece Theater production on the Public Broadcasting System, and I believe it was shown in three episodes. I adore Judi Dench.

The newest version of Tess of the D'Urbervilles is set to be shown on MASTERPIECE CLASSICS on PBS in two 2-hour episodes, commencing 4 January 2009. See link below for more info.

I caught an installment when I was in England and wished I could have seen the rest. It looked, from what I saw, to be a more detailed adaptation than either the A&E version of the 1990s or Roman Polanski's film. I found a couple of the young actors rather annoying, including the one playing Tess -- she wasn't very expressive, in my opinion, but maybe she was better in other parts. But the older actors seemed well cast, including the wonderful Anna Massey as Mrs D'Urberville. Yep, Tess and most of Hardy's books are real downers -- Little Father Time in Jude, oh mercy!! But I have a real soft spot for Tess. I guess I first read it at exactly the right time for me.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tess on Masterpiece

Like many, reading for me is an escape. I think it's great christin, the way you have been pursuing the classics, and also admire those who make and stick to their goals! My primary goal is to find books that provide a positive message. My work is stressful, and my reading material needs to provide hope as well as a some relief from life. I always need to be "in a book" so that I can think about it when I get stressed. For those considering "And Ladies of the Club" I consider this to be probably my favorite book ever, and one that has held up to 4 readings for me. I'd like to read "Bleak House" after enjoying the Masterpiece Theatre series so much. I'll have to think about "Tess" since I know how it ends!

-Kay, nice to hear from you again! Did your reading group accept your idea of African American related literature for next year?

-friedag, thanks for the link. After veer first mentioned that Masterpiece was doing 'Tess', I looked it up on their site because I was curious to see who thier cast was. I'm not sure why, but several of thier choices surprised me.
CMK

Hi CMK--yes, my book group did accept my idea of African-American themed books for a year, but most of the fiction offerings were shot down. We currently have enough readings to take us through April/May, and we need to add more fiction.

This group of women is very wary of fictional tragedy, sorrow, or violence. They prefer short works. And they prefer a female perspective or author. So it was no go on Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust, no takers on Huckleberry Finn, they eschewed Morrison's A Mercy... We agreed to tackle the job again in the spring.

In the meantime, I am quite enjoying Dreams from My Father. My other book group is reading Motherless Brooklyn, so I have my work cut out for me!