New year, new start, new books! I just turned 28 a couple days ago, can you believe? Capricorns unite. I set my goal for only 80 books this year, which is fairly low for me, but hopefully I'll find a new job this summer... Which means I won't have as much time to read. (Since I do most of my reading while I'm at my very boring job.)

I do wanna focus on my niblings more, including with the things I read. I'm gonna try to read all the stuff they recommend because it's such a good way to connect with them. Right now that means finishing the Wings of Fire series for my two older nieces, and starting the City of Ember series for my middle nephew. (I have six niblings in total; three nieces, three nephews. I highly doubt I'll have any more, as both of my siblings are approaching their 40s and have made semi-permanent contraceptive decisions. My oldest nibling is sixteen; he was born when I was eleven. And seeing as I'm an infertile lesbian too traumatized from childhood sexual abuse to enjoy any physical contact, I think that's it for us.)

Finally sank in that nobody reads these posts, so there's not much point in my continuing to write them. I probably won't be making another blog post for a while. I'm not gonna force myself to write, either... I suffered hella burnout last year after participating in a bunch of fanfic challenges that honestly weren't appreciated nearly as much as they should have been, for all that I melted myself down and poured Me into those works in such a short span of time. This year I'm just writing for me, whether that be fanfic or original.

I'm not setting any requirements or challenges for myself... I'm not interested in reading X amount of non-fiction or classics or whatever; I'm just kinda going with the flow, since that seems to be what works best (and since I am, as always, at the mercy of my ADHD and the hold systems of my various e-libraries).

As for what I plan to read in 2022, I'm still reading alongside the AppleGrant Bookclub podcast and the Newest Olympian podcast, so I'll definitely read more Katherine Applegate/Michael Grant books (I'm skipping the Soldier Girl series, though. Sorry, but that's just not appealing to me), and more Percy Jackson books.

I'd like to read at least a few of the physical books that I have on my shelf... I don't like physical books (I'm an ebook girl) and I dislike clutter/ collections/ generally owning stuff (I wouldn't say I'm a MINAMALIST, but...), so the sooner I read them, the sooner I can sell them. I'll read Thornhill, Lolita, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World, and The Gunslinger for this reason. (Speaking of podcasts, if you like history and literary analysis, the Lolita podcast is fantastic, going into Nabokov's life and the different responses different readers have to his work. And the very messed-up film/Broadway adaptions that paint this horrifying work as a romance and endanger the child actors...)

Similarly, I don't like owning ebooks (I'm a library girl). I should read some of the ebooks I bought and then... Never read. The ones that have been sitting in my Kindle for an embarrassingly long time. There's a ton, but I'll make it a goal to read The Fourth Whore, Radio Silence, My Secret Garden, The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy, Gideon the Ninth, Running With Lions, The Boy on the Bridge, and The Seafarer's Kiss so I finally can delete them.

There aren't too many new releases coming out this year that I'm aware of/ excited about (YET), but I am hyped for Mercy Thompson #13 (Soul Taken) in March, Wings of Fire #15 (The Flames of Hope) in April, the sequel to 'My Heart is a Chainsaw' in August, and the third Animorphs graphic novel by Chris Grine. Still very much invested in authors Stephen Graham Jones, Xiran Jay Zhao, Dan Wells, Katrina Leno, Julie Murphy, Caitlin Doughty, Grady Hendrix, Mona Awad, Naomi Novik, T. Kingfisher, Kristen Arnett, Katherine Applegate, Chloe Gong, and Mira Grant (and to a lesser extent her works under 'Seanan McGuire'). Hopefully they put out something new soon!

EDIT: I've since become aware of a number of upcoming 2022 releases that I'm excited for, including Madeleine Roux's "The Book of Living Secrets," Stephen Graham Jones's "Don't Fear the Reaper," Grady Hendrix's "How to Sell a Haunted House," Simone St. James's "The Book of Cold Cases," John Scalzi's "The Kaiju Preservation Society," Alex Segura's "Secret Identity," Grace D. Li's "Portrait of a Thief," Douglas Stuart's "Young Mungo," Jennifer Egan's "The Candy House," Xiran Jay Zhao's "Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor," Tori Bovalino's "Not Good for Maidens," Casey McQuiston's "I Kissed Shara Wheeler," Katrina Monroe's "They Drown Our Daughters," T. Kingfisher's "What Moves the Dead," Phoebe Wynne's "The Ruins," Sarah Gailey's "Just Like Home," and Rachel Gillig's "One Dark Window." I can only recommend my library purchase 5 books a month, so I've got the next few months sorted out, huh?

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My star rating system isn't exactly concrete, and is mostly based on gut feeling, but it goes something like:

5 stars: LOVED
4 stars: Liked/Strongly liked
3 stars: Neutral/meh/didn't hate or love
2 stars: Disliked/Strongly disliked
1 star: HATED

I very rarely give only one star to anything... As an author myself I try to be fair and subjective, like, 'was there anything of value to this, even if it didn't resonate with me personally?' (Also I like to think that I'm more discerning towards what I pick up to begin with... I'm better at looking at something and realizing 'NOPE that's not for me!' than I used to be. Which is good for everyone! I'm not stuck with a book I dislike, and the author doesn't get a bad rating from me.)

And I never ever give star ratings to anything I haven't 100% completed. (I also never 'count' a DNF towards my reading goal, and feel like it's cheating for others to do so. I (usually) won't say anything when I see other people doing it, but I WILL go "hmmm" to myself and side-eye their profile pic. SO THERE.) Often the last few pages of a book will influence my rating one way or another, so to condemn something I haven't read all the way through just feels wrong.

I feel like 3 stars are the worst, though. I'd rather someone hated my writing than felt indifferent towards it. I read because I want to feel strong emotions; it's okay if those emotions are negative, so long as they're strong.