2013. In books.

At the beginning of January last year I set a goal in Goodreads to read 50 books.

I have no idea what I was thinking.

Yes. I had 6-7 books to read for my American Lit class, which in my somewhat overachiever mind was of course well on the way to 50 (what?), and I guess I thought that after I graduated and was done with school lots of "free" time to read books would miraculously appear in my schedule. And evidently it would be enough time to read lots and lots of books.

Yeah.

That didn't happen.

After graduation I had a new, albeit good, type of busy, where I was reading lots of stuff (research type stuff), just not actual book type stuff. I think that should count for something, but that's hard to measure on Goodreads.

(Idea for the Goodreads people: I think you should have a generic book that can count for time spent reading random amounts of research. Just sayin').

I did read 32 books in 2013 though! And I think that's pretty awesome!

Here are all the books I read last year (I know. There are only 31 books shown. But I read Pride & Prejudice twice and Goodreads won't let you get "credit" for reading a book more than once. Dumb rule. Because I read P&P at least twice. Every year):

So this year I set a goal--a much more reasonable and achievable goal, I might add--to read 30 books. So far I've read 4 and am 1 ahead of schedule. I really like to be ahead of schedule, and I love how Goodreads tells me I'm ahead of schedule!

Last year I knew I was behind schedule, so I didn't even look at my stats, which said, "You are X books behind schedule," because it made me feel bad.

Silly, I know.

But it's the truth.

And this year I'm really trying to work more "free" time into my schedule to read, because all the experts say that to become a better writer you need to read. A lot. And I'd really like to become a better writer, so that sounds like permission to me!

Not that I need permission, but still...

This past week I ordered 3 books on writing that were highly recommended on a writer's blog I follow, and the cool thing is since I Am A Writer (like, I've actually been paid to write. Pinch me. I still can't believe it!), these books are a tax deduction.

And that is so cool!

However, for the next 15 days I will be watching the Olympics, so the reading of books will just have to wait until after February 23rd.

I do have my priorities, after all. :)