A happy New Year to you all! It’s such a wonderful time of the year, full of hope and aspirations. Spring is a while off, but the promise of it lingers in the air, and the whole year stretches ahead, a wonderfully clean slate, full of unknown wonders.

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? Apparently, these are the most common resolutions:

• Drink less alcohol
• Eat healthy food
• Get a better education
• Get a better job
• Get fit
• Lose weight
• Manage debt
• Manage stress
• Quit smoking
• Reduce, reuse, and recycle
• Save money
• Take a trip
• Volunteer to help others

All admirable indeed! But for me, reading always appears in my resolutions alongside those related to my own and others’ wellbeing (as does writing, which is largely informed by the reading). I once read that if you want to keep a New Year’s resolution, you should make it positive rather than negative – so rather than resolving to stop eating chocolate, you resolve to eat more healthy foods, and rather than resolving to quit gossiping, you resolve to be more compassionate towards people. It’s also a fact that you’re much more likely to stick to a resolution you actually enjoy keeping (and who enjoys eating less chocolate!). With these basic principles of resolution in mind, here are some ideas for resolutions that can inspire readers:

• Read every day.
• Read a book a week (or a day, if you’ve the time and the reading speed).
• Read one book of classic literature each month.
• Read poetry.
• Read to your children every day (and resist the urge to skip pages!).
• Re-read the complete works of your favourite author.
• Read a book in a genre you would never usually explore.
• Read a book that everyone’s talking about.
• Read the most obscure, unloved looking book you can find.
• Go to your local library, often.
• Buy books second hand, and after reading them, donate them to charity.
• Keep a reading journal, or start a book blog.
• Join a reading group (can’t find one? Start your own…).

The beauty of making a reading resolution is that there can be no regrets. Reading can only enrich your life, through the comfort and escapism it affords, and the knowledge you gain.

BBC journalist Matthew Davis made a resolution in 2012 to read the complete works of Charles Dickens – that’s four million words. He read a little every day, achieved his target, and now says, “I would … heartily recommend the principle of doing one thing each day for an entire 12 months, and basking in the satisfaction of a year’s worth of endeavour.” (You can read the full story at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20663427.) I very much like the principle. What do you think?