I’ve had a little bit of break from the website for a couple of weeks, I had lots of plans for articles to write and publish over Christmas and New Year but work, family visits and festivities all conspired to get in the way. I wouldn’t say that I was being lazy, but well, I was being a bit lazy. As a wise TV president once said “Break’s Over”. Time to get back to it.
Over the past few months I’ve had a lot of fun on LouiseReviews. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the reviews – particular highlights for me have included the Raindance Film Festival, being able to review books by debut authors that haven’t had much publicity and discussing books and films with some great fellow bloggers who have introduced me to new authors, actors and directors I may have otherwise missed.
I’m hoping for more of the same in 2012 and have some resolutions to help me achieve this. I’m relying on you to help keep me on the straight and narrow.
1. Read 75 books
Last year I read 64 books which is a fairly good number, but I do look back fondly on the years when I could read at least a couple of books a week. I’m not sure that I could manage that and I’m awestruck by those bloggers who manage to get through three or four books every week. I think 75 is a nice, achievable target and will make a big dent in my unread book list which currently stands at 137.
2. Read more Sci-Fi/Fantasy
I mentioned in a couple of my posts last year that I have a bit of a mental block towards Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels. There’s a little bit of me that thinks they are boy’s books and I know that’s really quite a silly point of view so this year I’m aiming to get to know the genres a bit better before deciding whether or not they are for me rather than relying on an old prejudice. I have a few books such as Trudi Canavan’s The Magicians’ Guild
3. Sign up as a World Book Night Giver
This should be a fairly easy resolution to keep, but sometime it’s the simplest ones that are the hardest to achieve as they are constantly put off in favour of bigger or more interesting tasks. World Book Night will be celebrated on 23rd April this year and sees thousands of books given out across communities. There are 25 titles on this year’s list, some I’ve read, some I haven’t. I’ve picked up a number of the books that I haven’t yet read and hope to read them before April but I also enjoy sharing my love of reading with others and this is the perfect opportunity to press a great book into someone’s eager hands.
4. List the films I’ve watched
Over the past few years I’ve been fairly assiduous about listing all of the books that I’ve read and taking note of who the authors have been so that I can look out for similar titles. On the other hand I have no idea how many films I saw last year, who they starred or who the directors were and that seems a little remiss of me. So this year I’m going to actually take note of the films I’ve seen (although will this terrify me when I see how much of my time I spend in front of a screen?)
5. Watch all unseen DVDs/Blu-Rays
I tried to count all my unwatched films this morning but got confused at around 85 when I wondered if I had counted all movies from box-sets like my Alfred Hitchcock collection
6. Choose more independent films
I absolutely loved the Raindance Film Festival in 2011, it completely opened my eyes to the world of independent films as opposed to the big studio/multiplex fare that I was more used to seeing. I’m still a fan of the popcorn movie and Armageddon
There’s lots more whizzing through my head – get to the cinema more often, be a better blog-friend – get round more blogs to comment more often and write more feature articles and opinion pieces. For the moment though, I think this is enough to keep both me and LouiseReviews going for the next 12 months. I hope you will join me as I do my best to achieve these goals.