Sunday Salon: 2016 Reading Goal

-
The Sunday Salon.com
In 2016, I'm trying to keep it simple. I have one reading goal. Only one. It's a big one, but I want to read 150 books. The most I've ever managed (since I started keeping track in 2009 was 139 (in 2014.) Last year I managed 130, which is 2.5 books a week. Pledging to read twenty more books in 2016 means I'm pledging to spend more time reading. I don't want to just to the number by reading short books or avoid reading long books (more than I already do for other reasons.) I know some days, weeks, months and seasons mean I read more or less. By 11:59 p.m. on December 31, 2016, I hope I can celebrate reading 150 books.

How I'll Do It
Over the past few months, I've noticed some days I find every possible minute to read and can read a book (of about 300-350 pages) in a single day, if I have nothing else to do besides go to work. Yet some days I don't pick up a book and manage to spend quite a few minutes doing nothing. Sometimes my brain is too tired to read, but more often, it's that I'm not that into the book I'm reading. I've gotten better at abandoning books, but I have a hard time doing that for books I feel like I should like or admire. Prize nominee books sometimes drag me down. When I look back at my favorite books of 2015, they weren't the ones I had to fight through. They were ones I chose to read instead of doing every things. So in 2016, I'm going to read 150 books by reading what I feel like reading when I feel like reading it. It means not always reading dark novels, even though I love them. I hope by mixing in more nonfiction, comics, mysteries, and short stories (I managed only one collection in 2015), and even reading more than one book at a time, I'll be able to embrace my reading time every day.

So Far, So Great
It's only January 3rd, and I've already finished four books (Hawthorne was up very early this morning.) I was 100 pages from the end of the first book when the new year began, but I've read three entire books already too. If nothing else, I'm giving myself a head start.

Now tell me: what is your reading goal for 2016?

As an affiliate, I receive a small commission when you make a purchase through any of the above links. Thank you for helping to support my book habits that bring more content to this blog!

Comments

  1. KayJanuary 3, 2016 at 3:11 PM

    I think your goal is great! And I think if you give yourself permission to 'let go' of a book that's not working, you'll attain it. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Carin SiegfriedJanuary 7, 2016 at 8:55 AM

    Good luck! I was very proud I read 100 last year (only second time I've hit that.) I could totally read more if they were all captivating like you talk about--those books you don't want to put down at all and read while you are brushing your teeth and waiting for the microwave.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to comment. Happy reading!

Popular posts from this blog

book review: A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear

-
Image
The backstory: A Dangerous Place  is the eleventh historical mystery featuring Maisie Dobbs. My reviews of the other eleven (plus Winspear's stand alone historical novel) are in my Book Review Database . The basics: Set four years after the last Maisie Dobbs novel, Leaving Everything Most Loved , in A Dangerous Place , we meet up with Maisie in Gibraltar in 1927 during the Spanish Civil War. She gets off her England-bound ship in Gibraltar because she's not quite ready to return. Note: this review contains spoilers about what happened in those four years of Maisie's life between books, all of which are revealed in this novel's first thirty pages.  My thoughts: Sunday I wrote about the Maisie Mail I received. These postcards appear in the book itself, along with many others. After setting the stage in Gibraltar in the opening pages (Maisie stumbles upon a dead body), Winspear recounts the last four years of Maisie's life in the form of postcards, letters, an...
Read more

book review: Run by Ann Patchett

-
Image
The backstory: After loving State of Wonder  ( my review ), I set out to read all of Ann Patchett's books. The basics: Run  is the story of the Doyle family: Bernard, an Irish Catholic ex-mayor of Boston, his deceased wife Bernadette, their adult son Sullivan, and their two adopted college ages sons, Tip and Teddy, who are biological brothers. My thoughts: I'm beginning to think Ann Patchett is my soul sister. Her writing reaches me deeply, and I've adored everything she's written. It was a special treat to read Run , the novel of hers I knew the least about going in. Although I had the framework of two of her novels and one memoir, I didn't know what to expect. Run  isn't as universally loved as some of her other works, so I was particularly curious to see how it measured up. Admittedly, Run  started off slowly for me. It took two chapters to really get into the heart of the story, but once it happened, I was hooked. One of the things I love most about ...
Read more

book review: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

-
Image
The backstory: Gilead  won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2004, and was longlisted for the Orange Prize in 2006. The basics: As Rev. Ames nears the end of his life in the 1950's, he begins a letter to his young son because Ames realizes his son is too young to really know him. Gilead  is that letter. My thoughts: Gilead  is a novel I'm been meaning to read for years. It's a character-driven, Midwestern narrative by one of our best contemporary writers. It should be a novel I love, yet I struggled to finish it and admit I was wowed by neither the story nor the writing. Gilead  seemed almost stream-of-consciousness at first. I appreciated that Robinson jumped right in: this novel is a letter from father to son; the reader's ignorance of these two characters is not the focus. As the novel progressed, more details began to be filled in, and the reader begins to understand the characters, setting and purpose. I enjoyed the ...
Read more