In the process of researching other book bloggers of color, I've been running across some awesome blogs that have been inspiring me. I got the idea to post my reading and writing goals (that's tomorrow's post) from Torrie Ogelsby, who runs a wonderful book blog called BooksAndMugs. Please check out her blog. If you are a writer and/or a reader, there are so many jewels waiting for you over there.  Here are my reading goals for 2016:

1. Read at least 1 fiction book and 1 non-fiction book a month.  This one might seem to be easy, but even though I'm surrounded by books all day at my job, it's hard for me to carve out time to read things that I want to read. One of the reasons I changed up the format of this blog was to hold myself accountable and motivate myself to practice self-care in the form of allowing myself to have leisure reading time. Look out for mini-book reviews on my selections each month.
2. Read at least four short story collections, including Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer. This reading goal is  attached to one of my writing goals, which is to submit short stories to literary magazines. In order to write great work, writers must read great work. I also want to read Going Home Shoes by Jill McCorkle, and I'm re-reading J. California Cooper's Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime.
3. Read at least three books about minimalism. Like one of my favorite bloggers, Kim Postell of TheNaturalFashionisa.com and BlogWithKim.com, I have wanted to start a journey towards minimalism and having less stuff for years. I think I'll start with Marie Kondo's The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up and then I move on to a new book on the topic that I just received called New Order: A Decluttering Handbook For Creative Folks ( And Everyone Else) by Fay Wolf.
4. Read at least one book that is outside of my normal preferences. I think it's important to expose ourselves to viewpoints that differ from ours so that we do not become insular in our thinking about the world. I wrote a post some years ago about how the insular thinking that is very common among Americans is the reason why there have been so few American Nobel Laureates during recent years. I'm challenging myself to read at least one book that's outside of what I would normally choose, but I hope to read more. For this goal, I think I'll start with The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy. I picked this one up at the 2015 BookMarks Festival in Winston-Salem. Conroy is regarded as one of the greats within Southern writers, so I want to see what I can learn from his style and how he develops his characters.

What are your reading goals for 2016? Happy Reading!