[caption id="attachment_708" align="alignright" width="240"] Happy people with books[/caption]

Forget the self-flagellation of gym and dieting based New Year’s resolutions! Here’s a list of 10 great reading resolutions.

2. Resolve to make more time for reading! Reading is one of life’s great joys, it’s also low cost and environmentally friendly, and there’s a lot of evidence out there to suggest that it also makes you a better person. If you need to feel virtuous, fiction is your friend.
   
3. Read something that isn’t in your usual genre. It’s easy to get settled in the safe space of reading what we know we like, but it’s good to break out once in a while and try something different. Who knows? You might surprise yourself and fall in love with a whole new kind of book.
   
4. Read something from the kind of author you don’t normally read. Look for unfamiliar voices, diversity, and a totally different perspective.
   
5. Resolve to write reviews. It is the most useful thing you can do for the authors of books you have loved. You can make an author’s day with a good review.
   

6. [caption id="attachment_1107" align="alignright" width="251"] More books, more joy...[/caption]

   Give books as gifts. If you love a book, why not buy a copy for someone else? Spread the joy.
   

7. Use the library. Libraries support authors in all kinds of ways, and if you can’t afford to buy books, using a library is a way of getting lots of free reads while also supporting some really good things.
   
8. Read to a child, or read in front of a child. Our kids are growing up ever less interested in books. This is a tragedy. If kids see adults reading books, they are more likely to think of reading as something people do, not just something you have to do at school. You can be that adult.
   

9. [caption id="attachment_1078" align="alignright" width="284"] Also, this reading thing...[/caption]

   Give books you’ve read to charity shops. That means more people get to read them, good
   causes benefit, and you have more shelf space for... new books! Virtue and self-indulgence all in one resolution.
   

10. Talk about books. Talk about what you’re reading, talk about what you love. Let’s grow a book culture.
    
11. Support your local bookshop, especially the independents. Make time to browse books in person and enjoy that freshly printed book smell.

Categories:

0 comments on this article

This thread has been closed from taking new comments.