New years bring new challenges, new outlooks, and the ever-popular resolutions. For the past few years I’ve been conscious of doing less pleasure reading than I’d like, allowing myself to get bogged down with reading for work and then using my personal time to do anything other than stare at more words. So in 2015, I vow to read more for myself, more for leisure. I want to fall in love with books all over again, to experience the joy of tripping over a new author purely by accident, of revisiting old favorites, and reading into the wee hours because I can’t stand the thought of stopping. It’s a wonderful thing to take something you love and turn it into your livelihood, but the danger is that some days work can strip the fun out of what was once just a hobby, so I’d like to recapture the feelings that made me want to work with books in the first place. I also want to read more deeply, and to take the time to really consider what I’ve read where it feels appropriate, which brings me to the motivation behind starting this blog.

I know full well that the internet groans with the weight of all the book blogs already out there, but I didn’t want to combine my personal literary musings with my professional writing as a literary agent. I want a space that has nothing to do with work, where I can feel comfortable discussing my impressions of any type of book, regardless of genre, and where I can engage with other readers and hear their thoughts.

My personal reading tastes tend to bounce all over the place, and so I expect this blog will do so as well. It will serve as ground zero for my various reading goals for the year, from reading more in general to reading more diversely. I’m also planning to tackle a few of the reading challenges I’ve discovered online in the last few weeks, with a particular eye toward actually reading the books I own rather than simply buying more and more.

Which brings me to the name of this blog: Books to the Rafters. This very much describes the state of my apartment these days — books stacking up everywhere, the bookcases overflowing — with an embarrassing number of said books still unread. My iPad also holds a ridiculous number of untouched volumes, and while they’re less of a danger to life and limb — e-books tend not to topple over in an earthquake — they are that much easier to forget, given they lie invisible until I start scrolling through all the titles in my virtual library.

It’s tempting to try and institute a complete book-buying moratorium, but I realize it’s an unrealistic expectation. I am, however, going to attempt to curb my impulse buying, and limit purchases strictly to a few titles I’m anticipating, mostly because they are the next in a series I’ve committed to reading. There are plenty of things for me to read already stacked up around my home, titles to suit every mood and purpose, things I’m genuinely looking forward to exploring.

The layout here will definitely be a work-in-progress for the next few weeks while I play around and search out some good images and decide what I want to include. But first up is some planning for the year ahead, including posts for the reading challenges I intend to join. Book blogging is just one small component of my resolutions for 2015, but I have to say it’s one of the ones that has me most excited. Here’s to a wonderful new year!