But I did manage to complete my goal last year!!
My goal last year was to read 100 books. I’d decided to try doing one dedicated goal rather then the 3-8 New Year Resolutions everyone always does, which are inevitably lists of all the things we don’t actually do.
At the end of 2011, I’d finished 101 books. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
It’s not a challenge I’ll do every year, but maybe every 2-3 years. It’s nice to have a reason to force yourself to keep reading and to pick up books you might not have before. I read so many more recent books that are generally not part of my interest because when you’re plowing through books so quickly, you don’t really have to worry about wasting time or some bad book dragging on.
The downside to this sort of challenge is that you have to really scoot. Some books are fine to be digested in a couple bites but most books benefit from taking time to savor, think, and reflect. Often I’d finish a book in a whirlwind and be left wondering what just happened.
It also directly influences the types of books you read. I didn’t eliminate long books all together. The Three Musketeers was probably the longest book I read. Wicked and the Devil in the White City were both pretty dense reads too. But I did find myself frequently, sometimes without even realizing it, pushing off some of the longer books I’m interested in reading, or grabbing for shorter books when I felt overwhelmed by deadlines. In the end, it all evened out to probably an average of 300-400 pages a book. But I am entering 2012 with 10 500+ word books at the top of my queue (Moby Dick, Bleak House, Adam Bede, Les Miserables, Harry Potter 4, Little Women, Game of Thrones, The Bone People, 20 Years Later, Of Human Bondage, Autobiography of Mark Twain, etc.)
I set myself a new goal this year to finish 50 books, just to give myself the opportunity to track again. I also set a mini-goal of reading 100 short stories. That shouldn’t take a year, but I’ve been awful the past year about not reading them and figured I could use the motivation. I definitely enjoy novels more but as I’m hoping to write more short stories, I need to read more short stories!
If you’re on GoodReads, feel free to friend me on there! Sometimes I post book reviews, if I feel inclined, and I’m always up for a good book discussion. Mostly, though, I just like spying on what other people are reading!
