between daemons: new year, old favorites?

Between Daemons is a discussion post series dealing in bookish and filmish topics. Inspired by the spiritual companions from the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman, I chose that specific title to encourage comments and conversations grounded in the personal thoughts, feelings, and opinions you may not have the chance to share very often. While disagreement is welcome, disrespect is not. As always, please be polite to your fellow commenters!

A new year always brings on a fresh wave of resolutions. Since this is my first year month in the blogging community I'm learning a lot about what book bloggers like to focus on for improvement, which has in turn helped me starting out as a new blogger!

Sometimes their lists include things that are relevant to anyone building their online audience: attracting more followers and page hits, tweaking the function and appearance of their blog, and engaging more with the community. Then you see reading goals, whether it's the number of books or pages, certain genres they want to focus on, or building diversity in the authors and characters they pick to read.

Setting goals at the start of the year, no matter how big or how small, can help us grow in so many ways. But...do you ever find yourself in a rut after the holidays? More specifically, a reading rut?

There's just something about the downhill sprint from Thanksgiving to New Year's Eve that often has me turning to familiar stories I've read plenty of times before. One in particular is the Harry Potter series. I first discovered the books during the holiday season and one of my fondest memories is lying down under the Christmas tree, using the lights on it to read by.

I don't just re-read familiar books, though! Sometimes I stick to new books by favorite authors (this past holiday season I picked up a couple new-to-me Margaret Atwood titles), or just genres I really enjoy (mystery/thrillers and fantasy novels in particular).

As lovely as the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are, they come with a lot of expectations. With the seasonal stress of family gatherings, old friends coming into town, gift shopping, and the celebrations themselves putting extra strain on my free time, I don't necessarily want a challenge in the books I read too. Seeking out the familiar and comfortable can be relaxing at the end of a long day, while still keeping my mind engaged! And aren't the holidays about returning home to celebrate with those you love? Maybe that tradition can extend to our bookshelves too.

Do your reading habits change during the holiday season? Are you scrambling to cross off the last books in a reading challenge? What hobbies other than reading help you relax during stressful times in your life? Let me know your thoughts in the comments down below!