Here at Rotten Poetry we don’t like to make New Year Resolutions. We prefer to use the turning of the clock to make intentions instead.
So we decided to ask some of our team and collaborators what their reading plans were for 2025.
Charlotte – I have spent the last two years chasing reading challenges on Good Reads so this year I am slowing down and trying something a bit different. I have been tearing through shorter fiction books and it has been great but it limits what I have been able to tackle.
I have a stack of non-fiction books that I have been wanting to get started on but I feel like I need to take my time with them. So that’s my plan for 2025.
Joanne – I am not usually one for making resolutions at the start of a new year. I do look behind at the time I should have spent more wisely, that I could try to do better in the future but I find it is probably better to try to be in the present. What small thing can I do today to make a positive impact going forward? Today I could read a little. I have so many books I have started and not finished. I do want to finish them but I struggle with focus and motivation and get distracted easily. If I could tell myself to read every day, just a little, maybe I can tell myself to write my book too. The hardest task. Little things, small steps, trying to pull myself back from the millions of thoughts and ideas.
I have begun, The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb, which is part of the Liveship trilogy. This is my second trilogy by Robin Hobb, so, they are clearly worth a look. I have begun my Discworld journey again by going right to the very beginning with The Colour Of Magic. I also put a bookmark in Tom Felton’s Beyond the Wand, because I will never stop loving the world imagined in the Harry Potter series, and I have a love for behind the scenes of my favourite films. So far my tastes are leaning towards the fantastical.
I have put a photograph of myself and another lady in a book I received at Christmas, Hags by Victoria Smith, a book about the demonisation of women. Yes, I am a feminist. I was told before opening this book, to not take it the wrong way. I laughed on opening it and knew I had a lot in common with my gift giver. They know me better than I thought. So now I have four books to finish. Wish me luck.
Tyler – It’s strange that we see January as a time of new beginnings when the world is still sleeping. For me, January is a time for tying up loose ends, wiping the slate clean and preparing to start fresh in springtime, when everything is awake. For this reason, I’ve chosen not to make any literary resolutions or set new reading goals this month, instead, I’m focusing on closing the chapter.
Confronting me on my desk is a pile of books that, for one reason or another, were left unfinished in 2024. Alongside this is another pile, made up of festive books received at Christmas. I’ve chosen to include the latter in my January TBR list because I think the magic they carry is more vital now than during the festive period. I’m currently reading The Dead of Winter by Sarah Clegg and it certainly feels like an apt title for this month, but the stillness of the season allows for some time to catch up.
Darren – 2024 was a year in which I explored some books from other arts of the world; diversifying my reading; Ambrose Bierce, Abelard and Heloise, Heinrich Boll, Alessandro Spooner, Yasmina Reza, Chingiz Aitmatov and my current obsession; Cesar Aira. I found all of these by picking up interesting and unknown (to me) books in bookshops. Seeing an interesting cover and blurb and purchasing. This has been a great journey and garnered some exciting variance in my reading. It has also been somewhat liberating from my tendency to limit myself to classics and a fairly traditional reading list; constraining my self with the excuse “life’s too short to read bad books.”. This is a freedom I want to continue.
I’ve also been delving (gently) back into some politics and philosophy and this is an area I have neglected and want to revisit. So some non-fiction, politics, philosophy and history is definitely on the cards for the year to come.
My new area to try and explore is to read some modern award winners, an area I have very much neglected. I will be taking some advice from our good friend Martin at Eyes on the Prize.
Our collaborators are all linked to here:
You can read about our core team here: