I intended for this to be my challenge trilogy from the beginning of the year. This was one of the books that was on display when I went to the Gothic exhibition at the British Library in at the beginning of this year. This is the first book of the Gormenghast trilogy, originally published in 1946. Where did I find it and why did I read it?

Tomorrow: Some final statistics on my reading for the year.Long trilogy, with lots of characters, lots of details, and lots of manipulation. What are some of your goals for 2017 – reading-related or otherwise?

My dream is still to judge a literary prize, even if that’s just as part of a shadow panel. I also hope to continue maintaining a balance between straightforward reviews/lists and different stuff, whether that’s travel reports or more introspective pieces. I’d love to get involved in more blog tours and collaborative challenges. It’s more rewarding (and remunerative) to prioritize full-length articles. For instance, this past year Foreword magazine invited me to write three articles surveying new and upcoming books in various genres: young adult, climate change and middle grade. I’d like to replace some of my individual book reviewing with longer articles.

Maybe I’ll also start a Classic of the Month feature? Three classics from the list of “Books to Read in Your 30s” in The Novel Cure are calling to me, and it’s also high time I read some more Dickens (maybe I’ll finally return to Dombey and Son?), Trollope (at least The Warden, if not more of the Barsetshire series), Brontë (Anne, in this case) and Woolf ( The Voyage Out). Jerome, a Stefan Zweig novella, Tender Is the Night, and two rediscovered 1930s works from the Apollo Classics series. I read very few classics in 2016, just a couple short books by Jerome K. Also on the shelf are A Suitable Boy, This Thing of Darkness, An Instance of the Fingerpost, Until I Find You, and a few chunky biographies I’m also sure to get some long books from the library and NetGalley. I wonder if I have enough really long books to sustain a Doorstopper of the Month feature? To get a head start on this goal, this past week I started City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg and Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake.

Some of the books I most want to tackle have 500+ pages.

I think the strategy will be to always have two of my own books on the go at all times, one fiction and one nonfiction, no matter how many other public library or Kindle books I’m reading. That could easily fill two-thirds or more of next year, yet I know I’m unlikely to cut down on my library borrowing or NetGalley and Edelweiss requests. I went around and did an inventory of unread books in the house and came up with 221.

As always, I’d like to focus on reading more of the books I actually own.

I’ve set just a few modest goals for the coming year’s reading:

Titus groan goodreads