Top Ten Tuesday | My Bookish Resolutions

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

Happy New Year! This week's theme is 'Top Ten Resolutions We Have For 2016 (can be bookish, personal resolutions, "I resolve to finally read these 10 books, series I resolve to finish in 2016, etc.)', so today I thought I'd talk about some of my bookish resolutions for 2016.

I would like... To read more books than I buy: It's inevitable when you're a book lover, and particularly when you're a book blogger/vlogger, that you're going to buy a lot of books. If you see everyone talking about a book then you want it, and even if you don't... well, I don't need much persuading to buy a book! In 2015, though, I literally ran out of room, and though I read a lot of books (and in reality I'm pretty sure I did read more books than I bought) I'd like to try and work my way through more of the books on my TBR. Even though I'll still be getting my hands on shiny new releases...

I would like... To read more non-fiction: This won't be hard as I really fell in love with non-fiction in 2015, and discovered I love it! As such I've bought quite a few non-fiction books, and I'd like to get to them in 2016. In particular, I'd like to read Jen Campbell's The Bookshop Book, Alison Weir's Mary Boleyn and Kate Bernheimer's Mirror, Mirror On the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales.

I would like... To finish more series: This is something I completely failed at in 2015 (though I did finish The Lunar Chronicles!), so whether I've already started them or I started them in 2016, I'd like to finish more series than I finished in 2015.

I would like... To read more classics: This was something I managed in 2015, but there are still lots of classics I have yet to read. Luckily for me I'm taking part in The Classics Club's Women's Classic Literature Event, so I'm hoping to read plenty! I'd particularly like to read Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar and Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South.

I would like... To write a book!: I'm a bad writer I let insecurity and downright laziness get in the way of my creativity, and though I say it every year I want 2016 to be the year I break through that wall and write a damn book. I also just want to generally write more, because though 2015 was a fantastic reading year it wasn't a great writing year.

I would like... To join or start a book club: There are plenty of online book clubs, and I'm sure a lot of them are brilliant, but I love 'real life' book clubs. I'm hoping a friend of mine in Swansea will restart the book club she started last year because I really enjoyed it - if not, I may try starting my own!

I would like... To have a bookish clearout: I have a lot of books. Some of them I've read and didn't like, some of them I've read and enjoyed but probably wouldn't ever read again, and some of them I haven't read and probably never will. I want to be brutally honest and send those books off to better homes, leaving myself with the books I really want to own - and a little more space!

I would like... To buy from more independent bookshops: Speaking of buying books, I know for a fact that I own so many because online shopping is my downfall. In 2016 I'd like to support more independent bookshops, especially as I bought a stunning book from Rossiter Books, one of my favourite independent bookshops, in Monmouth, which is a beautiful little shop.

Anna Maxwell Martin as Elizabeth Darcy (née Bennet) and Matthew Rhys as Fitzwilliam Darcy in Death Comes to Pemberley

I would like... To visit more literary places: I'm pretty lucky in that so many famous authors are British, and as I'm also British I have quite easy access to a lot of literary places. Despite that, though, I haven't been to as many as I'd like. I've been to Stratford and I've been to Bath - I've been to Haworth, home of the Brontës, a couple of times, too - but in 2016 I'd like to visit more literary places, whether they're places where authors lived or places where adaptations have been filmed. One of my friends is a butler at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, which has been used as Pemberley twice; one in the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and again in the 2013 adaptation of Death Comes to Pemberley. I'll definitely be going there this year!

I would like... To find a new bookish job: If you've been following my blog for a little while, you'll know that last year I worked at the independent publishing house, Seren Books. Sadly my position was a temporary position for a year, so I need a new job! I actually started a new temporary position yesterday at the University of Wales Press, an academic publishing house, but I'd like to find a position that doesn't have an end date to give myself a little more stability. I'm hoping to secure a job as an Editorial Assistant somewhere!

What are your resolutions?