2011 Reading Goals

For two years in a row, I have failed the 100 Books Reading Challenge. In 2009, I failed miserably with a pitiful 51 books read, and this year I still fell remarkably short with a measly 68. I really thought it would be a lot easier but when you factor in work, pets, house, family, sleep, time spent just not wanting to read and work (work counts twice because it holds the majority of life's suck) it turned out not to be. Still, this is something I really want to do. So I'm going to try again.

Being a rather OCD person, I thrive on lists. If I can put something into a nice, neat check list, it settles the little mess monster who resides in a state of unrest within me. I love a good list. I also like goals that have a definite start and end time, and are attainable enough to dole out a periodic sense of achievement.

I have 125 books on my To Read shelf. That's physically on the shelf, staring at me, accusingly, wondering why I purchased them with so much intent and love and then abandoned them for the next shiny new cover. But as much as I would like to say that I am only going to read my hundred out of the 125 that I already own, you and I both know that as book lovers, that would not only be quite impossible, but an act of unthinkable torture. I must buy books, and I must read the ones I already have.

So here's my plan:

1.) I'm going to make a list of ten titles to read for each month. I will start with ten and allow for substitutions in the case of review copies or abandoned books, and for unforseen circumstances that may pop up to limit my reading one month. This way I'm not stuck reading something just for the sake of the list and I don't neglect books that people were kind enough to send me to read and I don't get too far behind.

2.) I'm going to, and here is the hard part....not buy as many books. What's the point if they just join the others on the shelves and not get read. For each month that I read my ten, I can have one off my wishlist as a reward. That book will go on the next month's ten- because the month after I bought it, I owned it prior to the list and it doesn't break the read books I own rule :)*

"Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."
- Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass

3.) This all makes perfect sense to me as I have already put it on a spreadsheet.



January 2011's OCD 100 Books Reading Challenge List (in no particular order)

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
Sapphique by Catherine Fisher
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
The Wide Window- A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman
The Lying Game by Sarah Shepard
Unearthly by Cynthia Hand
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

There it is. And if I finish ten, I can have:

Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Published: January 11th 2011 by Razorbill






*I reserve the right to cheat by borrowing books and/or visiting the library.