bookgazing | Goal Results: First Quarter

I decided that this year I’d post how I was doing on various reading related goals (ho, ho, goals have numbers attached, these are really just unspecific notions) every quarter, just to keep myself on track:

Read more translated fiction: 4 books – I have already read more translated fiction this year than I read during 2010. If I could read 4 a quarter until the end of the year I’d feel like I was making translated fiction a part of my regular reading diet.

Keep male/female author ratio close (as in read more books by male authors): 10/12 – Right now I’m reading just slightly less male authors than female, but the ratio is much better than in 2010. I did have to make a big effort to increase the amount of male authors I was reading in March, but now I find that a lot of the books I want to read are by male authors. Must be careful not to tip back into days gone by when I would read so many more books by male than female authors.

Read more books containing GLBTQ characters with large roles: 8 – I found working towards this goal so easy this quarter, thanks to the fact that I was on the Indie Lit GLBTQ panel in January. I also seem to have a big stockpile of books that feature gay and lesbian main characters, so I don’t think the book buying ban is going to slow down this goal.

Read more books by authors of another race: 4 – Working towards this goal has not gone so well and in April I’m going to make an effort to work towards it. Part of the problem was that I wanted to read more adult fiction this quarter (and still do), but we have very few adult books by Asian, or African authors in the house and my book acquiring ban is on. I think the solution is to make sure that all my YA selections are by authors of a different race from me (which means I will almost certainly be reading ‘Slice of Cherry’ and the second ‘Agency’ mystery this month).

Read more non-fiction: 0 – Yeah I’m still sucking at that. I can’t concentrate on non-fiction in my lunch at work and most of my reading in the week is done in that hour.

Read more sci-fi: 6 – And I’m loving it! Sci-fi at it’s best can just make you think so hard and be so much fun to explore. In terms of male/female author ratio within sci-fi I’m at 3/3.

Read more literary fiction: 8 – My definition of literary fiction is a bit unspecified and doesn’t really seem to fit with a lot of other peoples (which seems to focus on lit fiction as fiction about political matters, but at the same time would exclude books like ‘The Dispossessed’ and ‘Shipbreaker’ which are both highly political). I know what I call lit fiction when I see it and this is the number I’ve come up with, the specific titles being: ‘Journey by Night’ – Antal Szerb, ‘The Summer Book’ – Tove Jansson, ‘Krakow Melts’ – Daniel Allen Cox, ‘Annabel’ – Kathleen Winter, ‘The Birthday Boys’ – Beryl Bainbridge, ‘Dimanche and Other Stories’ – Irene Nemirovsky, ‘Branwell’ – Douglas A Martin, ‘A Mercy’ – Toni Morrison.

Stop buying books for 3 months after Januray 13th 2011 (now extended until June): Book buying ban still intact – And oh my life how it needs to be. I might have mentioned that I’m saving for a flat deposit and it’s going ok, but I really can’t afford books, especially when I have so many lying around waiting for me. I’ve also kept up the clothes buying ban (although I can’t see that lasting too much longer as the weather is getting nicer and I’m not going to fit a lot of my summer clothes this year) and haven’t bought jewellery, or cds, or dvds throughout this whole nearly three month period (although I did put Vampire Diaries season 2 on pre-order). But there are some expensive events coming up. I feel a little stressed about money right now, but I’m sure it will all be fine – deep breaths.

I just wanted to mention a couple of other things I’ve put in place over the last quarter. I started eating more healthily during the work day, so salad, fruit and yoghurt for lunch and no trips to vending machines or Maccy D’s and started putting in lower fat measures at home (there’s no way I could give up carbs at the end of the day, but now the carbs can be wholewheat pasta or new potatoes on the majority of days). I kept that up consistently for 2 months, then had a couple of not so good weeks, but the refreshing thing was because I’d proved I could eat healthily and use will power I didn’t feel like these breakdowns were the end of my good intentions, or showed that I was just destined to be a bad, emotional eater.

The plan for this quarter is to put some regular exercise into this routine as it gets warmer, probably by going walking one lunch time every week to start.

I also set up a regular charity donation plan, which is something that not buying as many books allows me to do (just to be clear this is not me chiding anyone about charity, or trying to start a guilt trip, we all work for our own money, we all make decisions about what to do with it and as long as no one I know is doing something evil like deliberately giving their money to the BNP or betting on animal fights I really have no opinion on how any regular person spends their money - if you pay to see a monkey with a small blade fight a blind rabbit we would have to talk). I picked 3 charities to regularly donate to. With the help of the ‘Good Intentions are not Enough’ blog and charity rater, I could select a decent range of charities and check that my charities were operating in an effective and transparent way, which gives me greater confidence that my money is doing some good. I also picked a fourth charity, but they don’t allow UK residents to set up direct debits s this quarter I’m going to decide how to go about supporting them. And I set aside a (very) small monthly amount for spontaneous charity so I can support internet initiatives and friends, or colleagues. Obviously charity giving is not all about me, but regular giving and charity resources like ‘Good Intentions are Not Enough’ and Charity Rater do make me feel like I'm helping without harming.

So that’s all the goal related stuff I’ve been up to in the last three months. Let’s get motivational – tell me what you’ve been working towards and I will cheer like hell for you in the comments!