Review: Planning Your Reading Year

Combine the habits from this track into a balanced, personal plan for a year of reading.

Bring the track together by planning a reading year. Start with your anchors and stretches: list two genres you love and three forms or cultures you have not explored. Add variety in form: at least one essay collection, one book of poems, one play, one longform or narrative nonfiction work, and one graphic novel. Include world literature with more than one voice from a single place, and consider one pairing of a classic with a contemporary response.

Choose tools that keep you engaged: a commonplace book for passages, short reviews for books that moved you, and perhaps a discussion group. Here is an original sample plan for a student who loves fantasy: a new fantasy novel (anchor), a translated novel from Japan and an essay collection by a Japanese writer (world literature, two voices), a poetry collection, a play read aloud with friends, a narrative history of exploration, and a myth paired with a modern retelling. Revisit the plan each season; a good reading year evolves.

• 1Balance anchors, stretches, and forms.
• 2Include multiple voices and at least one pairing.
• 3Use a commonplace book, reviews, and discussion.
• 4Revisit and revise the plan regularly.