2020 All Lit Up Bookish Resolutions

Tan’s resolution: Read Harder Challenge

After a year of “Free-Range Reading” I am ready for a new challenge. For 2020 I will be tackling BookRiot’s Read Harder Challenge, a series of 24 reading suggestions that will break any reading rut or bias you may have wide open. I’ll be kicking of this year of reading challenges by picking up Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian), a debut novel by queer author Hazel Jane Plante, published by Metonymy Press.

Want to join me? Click herefor a downloadable and editable PDF of the 2020 Read Harder Challenge tasks.

Leyla’s resolution: Boost my bookstagram!

Like many who start bookstagram accounts with the best of intentions and then at some point drop off, I, too, find myself on a bit of a hiatus. It’s not for lack of enjoyment in my curation, or the community I find myself a part of, and DEFINITELY not for a lack of books! I actually like to think of my bookstagram feed as one of the quickest and truest ways of getting to know me—my interests and passions are all there in the books I cherish most in my collection. 2019 was a really inspiring year for me after discovering weird literature—new and old, so if anything, we’ll just call this past year more of a literary sabbatical. Here’s to a refreshed TBR list fit to properly haunt my dreams with doom and gloom and a new year of shelfies.

I’ve been anxiously awaiting the launch of Lisa Robertson’s The Baudelaire Fractal (Coach House Books), which follows a poet who awakens to realize she has written the entire works of that decadent dandy Baudelaire—without whom my own bookshelves would feel incomplete.

Mandy’s resolution: The 20 in 20 Challenge with a twist – #Read20(Debuts)in2020

I’ll be honest, I’m not great at reading challenges, but I like a good round number and a debut author even more. So in the vein of #Read20in2020 where readers choose 10 fiction and 10 non-fiction books to read in the year, I’m going to read 20 debut books—of whatever strikes me—whether it’s fiction or poetry. Starting off my challenge is Jaclyn Dawn’s Wynonna Earp-meets-What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? debut novel The Inquirer (NeWest Press), about a young woman returning to a hometown that holds personal demons. 

Barb’s resolution: Smaller bites!

This year I’m going to try to step away from the novels for a bit and enjoy more plays, poetry, essays, and graphic novels. These have all been sadly lacking from my TBR pile and I intend to make up for it this year. To this end, my book pick is The Hunting of the Snark from Porcupine’s Quill. In this illustrated edition of Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark, master wood engraver George A. Walker provides an uproarious reinterpretation of the classic poem as seen through the convex lens of contemporary American politics.

Laura’s resolution: Less screen-time, more book-time

I’m excited to read Martha and Christina Baillie’s Sister Language (Pedlar Press)—an intriguing book—a collaboration between two writers who are sisters, and an exploration of their bonds through language.

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