Top Ten Tuesday: Things On My Bookish Bucket List

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday on The Broke and the Bookish is “Top Ten Things On My Bookish Bucket List.”

I’ve never considered a bucket list, much less a bookish one. So this is possibly going to be a bit odd. But here goes!

1. Try to read more consistently.

I generally aim for a couple of books a week. But if I’m reading a book I don’t connect with, if I get busy, or if I’m just really tired and despondent, I can sometimes take a couple of weeks to finish a book. Which wouldn’t be so terrible, except whenever that happens I tend to lose momentum. The excitement I had for that huge stack of TBR books turns into intimidation – even resentment. I find myself foundering around, picking up and putting down books, no idea where to go from there. It’s tough, but I need to learn to deal with difficult reads better and just force myself to either DNF or sit down and finish the bloody things already.

2. Come up with more discussion post ideas.

The problem isn’t that I don’t have ideas – it’s that the ideas I have and things I’d like to chat about have already been done. And while I very much believe that it’s fine to put your own footprints on well-trodden ground, if there are already a bajillion posts on a topic that say the same thing, there’s not a lot of point. So what’s a girl to do? Answer: get better ideas or a new take. I’m workin’ on it, guys. I’m workin’ on it.

3. Finish series.

I have a tendency to start a series and…. just stop. I still haven’t read Allegiant, for example. Though that might be a bad example because I don’t actually want to read it. But still, you get my point.

4. Comment more on other blogs.

I’m pretty good about replying to comments on my own blog, but I subscribe by email to my favourite blogs rather than cruising on by. While this is great because I never miss a post, it does mean that I’m generally too lazy to swing by when I’m done and post a comment. So no one knows I’m actually reading them most of the time. I am, I swear!

5. Remember to vary my reading.

I get super stoked about all the books the bloggers are talking about, but a lot of the ones I follow are YA bloggers. Absolutely  nothing wrong with that, but it does give me tunnel vision. And while I love YA books and will always have a ton on my TBR and review lists, I would like to vary what I’m reviewing a bit more. If for no other reason than if I review a decidedly adult book, I don’t want everyone to be all, “Isn’t this a YA blog? What’s this doing here?” I would like variation – everything from kid’s books to classics to YA to erotica – to be the norm here.

6. Meet some of the book bloggers and authors I’m a huge fan of.

I haven’t met many authors, but there’s a long list of authors I’d love to have tea or beer with. Though I’d probably be horribly tongue-tied (probably should make it beer), but I’d like to imagine that eventually I’d regain the ability to speak and not make a total ass out of myself.

There are also so many book bloggers who are smart, funny, friendly people and I’d love to have like an international book blogger’s hang out or something. You guys are fantastic. (I’d also really like to make Gillian Berry over at Writer of Wrongs my best friend whether she likes it or not. Which probably sounds really stalkerish if you haven’t read her blog yet. But trust me, once you have, you’ll get it. She’s hilarious, super smart and totally awesome.)

7. Move to London and spend my days in the reading room at the British Museum.

Seriously. That place is beautiful.

8. Get beautiful, hardcover editions of all my favourite children’s books.

There’s something special about the books we read as a child, and having beautiful copies of those books makes them even more special. I have a few really lovely copies of some of them (The Secret Garden, Matilda, The Railway Children, Anne of Green Gables), but someday I’d like to have a bunch more.

9.  Read more classics.

I haven’t read nearly as many classics as I should. I haven’t forayed far into the Russians, I’ve only read one Dickens, I’ve never tackled James Joyce – I haven’t even read any Sherlock Holmes. While I have read a bunch, I feel like there are some major gaps that need seeing to. So I would like to get into some more challenging reads.

10. Go back to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

I went there once, but it was under renovation (apparently so many people go through there that they had to strengthen the foundations or something) so I couldn’t see all of it. I’d like to go again. It was a really intense, overwhelming experience, and I think a second visit would not only allow me to see the bits that were closed, but really experience it.

Oh, and own a library. Of course.

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That was easier than I thought! What about you guys? What bookish dreams are on your lists?