2023 Reading Resolutions

Wherever you stand on making New Year's resolutions there's no escaping them at this time of year: the air is positively thick with good intentions. All of Team WBC are complete bookworms so our resolutions tend to be more of a bookish variety than salad eating or couch to 5k. Why not join us in setting a reading resolution for yourself?

As with all resolutions if there's a strong 'why' underpinning the 'what' the habit tends to be easier to stick to. When we're encouraging children to read we don't usually need convincing of the benefits, but in adulthood it's easy to drift away from regular reading, so allow us to remind you of the benefits of making reading part of your daily life.

*'Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind'***

Epictetus

A regular habit of reading can aid with your health and wellbeing. Reading has been shown to lower the blood pressure and heart rate, and can strongly aid a good night's sleep. If you're prioritising your sleep hygiene it's well worth building in a regular 20 minutes of reading prior to settling down to sleep. If you are unlucky enough to find yourself in a period of insomnia try to reach for a book rather than your phone. Rather than doomscrolling think of this additional reading time as a gift to yourself, and time spent on something positive rather than tossing and turning and waiting for sleep to return.

*“Great books help you understand, and they help you feel understood.”***

John Green

Reading regularly works wonders on improving your vocabulary and enhancing your memory. By reading the work of others we can become better writers too, supporting your writing with reading widely will help you find your own voice.

Reading doesn't always need to be about the more tangible benefits, however. Whatever books you choose to lose yourself in will improve your empathy and compassion, and those imaginary journeys with your favourite protagonists will be working away in the backgroud developing neural pathways.

So, what will your reading resolution for 2023 be? Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Keep a reading journal.

Note all the titles you've read, detail why you've enjoyed them (or not!) and add all the quotes you want to remember.

Even if all the detail you note is the title and author this will provide you with an aide memoir of your year's literary journey.

Spend more time reading.

It can be challenging to carve out a little time in the general hustle and bustle of life, but even 20 minutes here and there will soon add up. How about reading on your commute, or during your lunch break? Reading before bed is always lovely and will help you drift off to a good night's sleep too.

Start a book group

Why not? What could be nicer than taking time to thoroughly discuss a book you've loved with like-minded people? A great way to meet other people and be introduced to new titles and authors, and perhaps support your local coffee shop or pub at the same time.

Streamline your book collection

As book lovers we can be guilty of a little, ahem, hoarding when it comes to books. Why not make streamlining your book collection one of your goals for the year? This needn't mean a full Marie Kondo, rather a chance to look at each book, dust and replace the keepers and pass the ones that you didn't love and know you won't return to on to a new home. Set them free, and give your favourites the space to truly shine

Join the WBC Reading Challenge!

As a team we're all a little prone to getting into reading slumps, so we've decided to create a fun reading challenge to keep us inspired throughout the year, Join us!

We've put together a series of prompts to keep you challenged throughout the year. Join us in as many as you'd like, and keep in touch via social media with the hashtag #WBCchallenge2023 . We can't wait to see the directions that this will take us!

Here are the reading resolutions that Team WBC are setting for themselves for 2023:

Marianne

In 2023 I will be prioritising every day reading.

I'd like to start each day with a few minutes of a non-fiction title to make a little bit of space before I fall headlong into the ordinariness of the day. I'll also be prioritising reading fiction at the end of the day too, to continue fighting the fight with my phone and hopefully get a better quality of sleep.

2022 saw me falling into something of a reading slump, so I'm hoping 2023 will be filled with lots of new favourites and inspiring titles, there are certainly lots of great new releases to look forward to!

Liv

For 2023, I really want to read some classic novels. I’ve always had an irrational aversion to the classics, but it’s about time I put my biases to the test. I’ll start with some twentieth- century stuff and go from there. I also want to form more of a reading habit before bed. Cup of chamomile, duvet pulled up to my chin, and a well-thumbed paperback- perfect!

Aishah

While I try to stay away from number goals at the start of the year (I never seem to be able to reach them anyway and rather than be proud of how much I did read I tend to still feel disappointed). I do have a goal in mind for this year. I'm aiming to reduce my seemingly endless TBR by only allowing myself to buy a new book if I've read at least one book from my TBR. And with all the great books coming out in 2023 this will definitely motivate me to read more.

Alisha

I’ve been in a little reading slump recently and have been struggling to get stuck into any of the books on my TBR pile! With that in mind, I’m planning to start reading a new genre this year, to see if that can lift me out of my slump. I don’t tend to read any sort of crime book, so I think a complete change with a good detective story or historical crime is the way to go this year. If anyone has any recommendations, I’m all ears!

Nicola

This year I won't be putting any pressure on myself in terms of achieving any numerical goals with reading. I'll be focussing on reading for fun, and for my interests. At the moment I'm enjoying dipping into books on gardening and home improvements, and by having attractive books around it's always tempting to dip in and enjoy a few pages!

Chloe

I never set reading goals, i.e. to read so many books per year, as some books I read really quickly, and some take me longer, and it's just not something that I feel I need to do. I did get stuck in a rut of only reading crime/psychological thrillers a few years back, so I did set myself a challenge of alternating these with something completely different in between, and this has resulted in me reading almost anything nowadays. So, I'll just stick to this going forwards…although quite often I do pick a book because it's got a pretty cover which often leads to me reading something I wouldn’t normally pick for the blurb.