Your reading plans for 2014?

[MiddleAgeMiddleEngland]

Related to the 2014 50 books challenge, I suppose, but a bit different.

What are your reading plans for the coming year? A random selection? Re-reading your favourites? Exploring new authors or reading more of ones you know you like? More fiction, more non-fiction?

I want to re-read quite a few classics as well as read some which are new to me. Will probably alternate these with more modern fiction, some new and some re-reads.

My other book-related plan is to persuade DH that we really can fit another bookcase into our bedroom - he seems a bit doubtful but will probably agree after a while

1. Read lots and lots of the Very Short Introduction series a) because I like them b) because they are a convenient size to stick in a handbag and c) because they look so pretty all lined up on a shelf!

2. read more classic sci-fi

3. Re-read The Worst Journey in the World and Scott's diaries

4. read lots of history books

5. read the remaining Wilkie Collins novels that I've not yet read

6. never, everbe without at least one book on the go and one waiting!

My plan for 2014 is to lay off my Kindle a bit and set aside more time for responsibilities & friends. We'll see what happens. I have such good books waiting in my beloved Kindle...

Remus The Very Short Introductions are lovely, aren't they? The Oxford University Press shop in Oxford naturally has a huge display of them, they always look so tempting. We have a few here, perhaps I'll get a handful more to improve my mind!

Cote I'm sure you'll have time to read as well as everything else. I hope your year goes well.

Watched a programme the other night about M.R. James so have now got a very thick tome of his short stories on the bedside table ready to read......eventually.

I love them, Middle. Have got Rhetoric and The Devil waiting for me, and have quite a long list of ones I want next. :)

I want to reread more and I think I'll alternate with new reads - which should really be selected from the books I've already bought and not read rather than buying more.

Specific books lined up for the near future are Measuring the World, A Woman in Berlin and TransAtlantic plus I really should try to finish Lanark.

Will probably reread some Henry James and Bring Up The Bodies after recently rereading Wolf Hall and loving it again.

Measuring The World is brilliant!

I got a copy of The Novel Cure, which 'prescribes' novels for conditions of life and the soul. I love dipping into it, and once my Christmas reading is finished, plan to do some reading from its prescriptions, rather than base my reading on Waterstones promotions. Currently fancying Cannery Row and Our Spoons Came From Woolworths.

TGOTL Cannery Row is lovely. Not as long as some of his other novels, but a nice comfortable read. I don't know Our Spoons Came From Woolworths, but I have a book called The Brontes Went To Woolworths which I've never read. Must put it in my to-read-soon heap.

maillotjaune loved transatlantic!
TheGirlontheLanding The Novel Cure sounds excellent. Going to try and reserve it from the library if I cannot get it on kindle.

Excellent, so I just need to decide whether to read Transatlantic or Measuring The World first then.

Am going to read lots of Great War commemorative stuff,both fact and fiction.

Any titles in mind yet, GW?

I totally recommend, 'All Quiet on the Western Front' but guess you've read it already.

Yes have read everything out there I think!
Have
the War that ended Peace by Margaret MacMillan
Women and the Home Front by Kate Adie
To start with,and am keeping an eye on new releases on Amazon,there is a new fiction Great War novel out soon,can't remember name though!
Also have the new Elizabeth Speller on kindle,called At Break of Day I think.
Plus Jeremy Pax an has one out too.

My plan is very like yours, OP

Last year, following a post on here, I counted up how many unread books I owned and it came to well over 100 . I am going to try not to buy too many more this year but to tackle the books on my shelves which must have appealed to me at the time I bought them. Most are fairly modern literary stuff; hoping to find some nice surprises among them. Will try to get through at least half of them in 2014.

I'd also like to reread some classics and add others by the same authors. So Zola, Tolstoy, Trollope, Edith Wharton, George Eliot, Arnold Bennett, Steinbeck .. and open to other suggestions

highlandcoo I'd really recommend Knut Hamsun's The Growth of the Soil. He was disapproved of for his political views but now has a museum dedicated to him in Norway. The novel is literally the story of the growth of a farm or settlement in northern Norway. I have the old Picador version, I don't know if it's still available, but some translations will be better than others. It's one of my very favourite books, and if you like Zola and Steinbeck, I'd think you'd enjoy it as well.

Have you read On The Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin?

I had decided not to buy any books until at least February, but 'accidently' bought one today... From a charity shop, though, so I don't feel guilty about the cost. Need to do a bit of bookshelf pruning, though, as they are far too full.

My main plan is to spend less time in front of screens and more time with books - I only read an embarrassing 17 books last year and aiming for 40-50 in 2014.

I'd like to read more stimulating but enjoyable books this year and made a good start on this with 'Quiet' by Susan Cain.

The only book I plan on re-reading is 'Howards End' by E.M Forster. Going to give Jane Austen another go after getting stuck on 'Sense and Sensibility' years ago.

Also planning on reading 'The Goldfinch' when it's out in paperback. I've got 'The Secret History' so will make a start on that soon.

New books I'll be getting from the library are 'A Pleasure and a Calling' by Phil Hogan, the new Nick Hornby one, 'A Curious Career' by Lynn Barber (I loved her first memoir, 'An Education') and the new Armistead Maupin book, if I can catch up with the remaining Tales of the City books I've yet to read.

OP thanks for these recommendations. Have explored them on Amazon and they do look interesting. Was aware of Bruce Chatwin but Knut Hamsun is new to me. I know my sister would absolutely love The Growth of the Soil so also an idea for a present for her when her birthday comes around. Cheers