Reading in 2012

I have no lack of books to read. Trust me on this. I have a shelf with, oh, somewhere around 55 or so books, waiting to be read. I also have 30 or so on my Kindle. So why am I going to change the way I read them in 2012? Because most of them are old. Not ancient, or anything, but certainly not current. There are some that are 10 or so years old, by date of publication. Things that fill in blanks in the works by favorite authors. First books in series that are in their fourth or fifth (or even later) books. Stuff I picked up at used book stores or on the swap site. The problem with this? Well, nothing, really.

Except that I rarely get to read anything as it is current. Oh, sure, I have a list- a long list- of books recently published that I want to read. But as things go now, by the time I get to those, they will be old. So I decided to change my reading goal for this year. I am shooting for two books a month (at least) with one being from my older group and one a newer release. Maybe not this year, but within the last few. So at least I will be somewhat current and able to talk about "that book." (As in: "Have you read That Book yet?") Yes, it means I will be buying more books, but is that a bad thing? (I can pretty much guarantee that the authors of those books I will be buying will not object!) I decided on two a month because I am not a super fast reader and those big thick ol' books take me time to read.

I plan to start in February, partly because January is half over now, and I have already started a book off the shelf. So that puts me at 22 books for the year, which should be doable, since I managed to get through 30 last year. And that started book? It's a big, fat 600-pager, so I guess I better start reading!

Do you have a reading goal for the year? And do you read newer books, older books or a mix? Also, if you have read something recent that you thought was really good, let me know. Just remember, I'm pretty much a fantasy/scj-fi girl, but I'll read other stuff if I think it sounds interesting enough.