Our staff share their literary resolutions for the new year.

One of the things I keep learning way too late is that when someone hands you a book to read, you should read it right away. Too often those books sit untouched on my shelf for months – or years – until the person who once recommended them forgets to ask how I’m enjoying it or becomes suspicious of my evasive ways. For 2015, I am resolved to start any book given to me, before the following rendezvous with the book-giver.
– Sophie Lloyd, Bookseller

Finish what I start!
– Stella Charls, Bookseller

I’d like to find some more translated young adult fiction based on how much I enjoyed Nine Open Arms by Benny Lindelauf (translated from Dutch by John Nieuwenhuizen). A good start would be the sequel, Heivisj’s Heaven, but as that remains elusive here are some others: Mister Orange by Truus Matti (translated by Laura Watkinson), In the Sea There are Crocodiles by Fabio Geda (translated by Howard Curtis), Vango by Timothee De Fombelle (translated by Sarah Ardizzone) and Why We Took The Car by Wolfgang Herrndorf, (translated by Tim Mohr). That last title was one of our top ten young adult books of this year.
– Emily Gale, Online Children’s Specialist

In 2015, I hope to read more backlist books. My reading list this year was almost exclusively brand new releases, which is wonderful and very helpful for my job, but I often come across older books that sound fantastic but I never quite get around to reading them. On my backlist wishlist for 2015 is a whole bunch of true crime and crime fiction books (probably borne out of my recent enjoyment of the Serial podcast) including: People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Parry, The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm, Dark Places by Gillian Flynn and The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule.
– Nina Kenwood, Digital Marketing Manager

2015 will hopefully see more poetry for me, starting with a revisit of Maya Angelou’s work.
– Chris Gordon, Event Manager

I’ve always been someone who reads for pleasure and I’ve never viewed this as a problem before either. It’s an activity I love which I don’t want to taint by enforcing ‘shoulds’, and also, as a rule, I have quite wide-ranging taste. I do have favourite kinds of books though and lately, these have been taking precedence. So, in 2015 I’m planning to purposely seek out one book a month which I wouldn’t normally come across in my day-to-day work. I’m starting with Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, which is for my book club.
– Bronte Coates, Digital Content Coordinator

I have three goals this year. The first is to read more young adult books as I’ve been buying a lot of really great ones for my nieces and nephews lately, and I’m jealous they get to read them all first! I’m also planning to venture into reading crime fiction given I’ve crossed the line by watching every crime TV series this year (despite always swearing that I would never be interested in watching anything of the sort!). My last goal is to read the entire Harry Potter series; I never made it past the first one.
– Emily Harms, Head of Marketing and Communications