Friday, January 8, 2010

To Read

Or The Growing Mountain of Books on My Bedside Table that I WILL Read Before I Die.

Last year, about mid-March I decided I was going to read 100 books in 2009. In August, I re-vamped my goal a bit, seeing as I was already 1/4 into the year when I decided on this goal. So new, calendar adjusted goal: 75.

As of my last Recent Reads post, I made it to 34. That is so far short, I am embarrassed to admit it. Luckily, I know you guys are awesome and won't ridicule me. At least not too much.

I thought about why I didn't reach my goal. And not to make excuses, but I just think I wasn't being realistic. Firstly, TIME -- I hadn't counted on how much the day job and a home remodeling (still in progress, btw) would take over my life. Secondly, I reached a point where there was just nothing new I was dying to read.

I don't know about you, but for me, but I have to be in the mood to read certain books. But the mood never struck. So I read, but mostly just old books I'd finished eons ago, which I had defined as books that didn't count toward my 100, er, 75 goal.

So now, I've decided on a more practical goal. Based on what I accomplished last year in 3/4 of the year, I think it would be safe to say 50 is a good goal for me.

It helps that there are a few books I'm eagerly awaiting that come out this year, as well as the fact I've jumped on to participating in some ARC tours!

What about you guys? Aside from the writing goals, do you have reading goals too? Any books you're eagerly awaiting this year?

Have a great weekend and happy reading!

6 comments:

Stina said...

My to-read list is growing longer by the day, yet I'm reading FADE by Lisa McMann for the third or fourth time. Good thing it's a quick read. :D

Windy said...

Stina - you're a woman after my own heart :D ... And frankly, I just pulled out my copies of WAKE and FADE to re-read before GONE comes out next month!

Anonymous said...

I've never counted how many books I read but I'm pretty sure it's a lot. (Especially according to my B&N bill.) =]

Congratulations on your new goal! I'm very, very happy for you!

Stephanie McGee said...

I feel your pain here. My TBR pile grows daily.

And will continue to grow until summer.

As for books this year, the last Fablehaven, a new Tamora Pierce (I think), and Paranormalcy.

Windy said...

Thanks, LT! Yeah, the husband said I'm only allowed at BN w/giftcards only for a while. I have 1 left with just enough for 1 book. I'm being HIGHLY selective.

Stephanie - Yes, but you get to go do all sorts of artsy type things and gain more smarts so you have a good reason for your TBR pile to grow! I haven't read any of those you mentioned... will have to look into them!

Stephanie McGee said...

Yes, I get to embarrass myself in highly public ways on a semi-regular basis.

Sigh. The Fablehaven books are excellent reads. I've been a long-time Tamora Pierce fan.

Start with her Song of the Lioness quartet. It's really the best, in my opinion. And it's the starting point. Every series from then on you deal with some recurring characters in different capacities that you met in either this series or the one that followed it. (And the one that followed it had characters from the first.)

Paranormalcy is a debut author this year. I follow her blog. It's Kiersten Writes. (That's the blog title.) She's really quite entertaining.