Pop Culture Princess

Pop Culture Princess
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Monday, December 29, 2014

A few of my reading resolutions for 2015

As 2014 is nearing the end of it's run, the time to make plans and goals for the upcoming year is now. I tend to go for pop culture resolutions and my reading habits in particular, as those TBR piles  start to reach scary heights.

My goals aren't too lofty,actually, but it's important to shake things up in your literary intake so that your brain is being properly fed the right amount of art and entertainment. Plus, it'll be some time before all of our favorite TV shows are back in action(and yes, my TV Thursday posts will return, most likely by next week), so let's flip some pages and see what's on my immediate horizon:

 LISTS AND LITERARY DUETS:

I like making to-read lists for each season,as I began doing in 2014, and since it seems to be working, I'll keep that up. Mind you, not every book slated for a certain time period gets fully read(James Ellroy is definitely going to take a little longer than I expected, so those books will get a long extension) yet a good number of them do, making the odds rather even there.

In addition to that, I have quite a few "two by the same author" books that I would like to complete, such as Daisy Goodwin's The American Heiress and The Fortune Hunter(the latter was a Christmas gift).

A double dose that I'm particularly looking forward to is from Syrie James, whose Jane Austen themed books I've devoured. She does write other non Regency fare and for my Spring Reading List, I plan to include The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte and Dracula, My Love.

As much as I appreciate a look at Charlotte Bronte, the Dracula title intrigues me a bit more, as the story is told from the point of view of Mina Harker as she begins to fall both in love and lust with the renowned vampire king. All the while, being a married woman in the Victorian era and still caring for her husband Jonathan(who was tempted by a few blood sucking babes, if I recall rightly) makes for a rather conflicted lady to say the least.

Romance is lovely but some sexy vampire time is always welcome. James does have a modern day vampire tale as well but I think it would be best to see how sweetly steamy things get with Miss Mina first:



GETTING GRAPHIC WITH COMICS:

I haven't read any comic books for a good long while and it's time that I did, especially since many of my favorite book vloggers are talking about how great so many of them are these days.

While my book buying budget is small, my book rental service Booksfree does offer graphic novels and comic book collections, so it only makes sense to catch up on the goodness that way. Not all of my picks will be superhero based(altho, I do need some more background info on The Flash and want to check out the best takes on Wonder Woman lately) but many will be in the fantasy category.


I also intend to check out some of the more notable graphic novels and memoirs, such as Alison Bechdel 's Fun Home. Her heartfelt humorous take on her relationship with her father who she discovered was gay(around the same time that she realized that she was as well) just before he died is held up as a high water mark in the field.

As the daughter of an artist who had a strong bond with her dad myself, I have a keen interest in seeing how Bechdel expresses her emotional connection to her family via her work. Insights into artistic development are engaging to watch, even in a medium where the action isn't always readily visible to the audience. The art of cartooning doesn't always get the respect it deserves but books like this bring the genre forward in more ways than one:




GOING BACK INTO OUTLANDER TERRITORY:

With the next half of season one of Outlander due to return to Starz this spring, I really need to get cracking on Book Two. I did start Dragonfly In Amber over the summer but with the show on halt by September, putting the book aside for a while felt right.

Don't get me wrong, the story is great but committing to such a long book when you have so many others on hand, begging for their turn,  slipping a bookmark in to "pause" until some of those must read titles are caught up on is so easy to do. Well, I should be able to get through a decent chunk of DFIA by the time the series has it's premiere in April and that will make me ahead of the game there:


No doubt there will be many more bookish delights to come in 2015, so while I may have a few structures in place, they won't prevent me from enjoying the new page turners to come. A little rereading must be allowed, as the good folks at Pemberley Digital have just launched their latest book adaptation webseries and it's a version of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women!

Little Women is an all-time favorite of mine and having The March Family Letters to look forward to only makes me wish that 2015 was here already. *sigh* Hope nothing too bad happens to Beth in this one(semi-spoiler alert) and how cool is it that Jo make action movies?! OK, I have no choice but to reread Little Women, a pleasure that I will be happy to share with all both on and offline this year. So ready to turn the page on this year, for more reasons than one and happy to find new story telling joys just around the literary bend:


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