2017 - The Year of the Book?

It all began with the Winter Reading Challenge at the Library. Staff was allowed to participate in their own separate category. My competitive nature met with the prospect of a Barnes & Noble gift card and created the perfect storm. Half-way through, I did the math. If I finished the WRC (and I would finish it), I would have read 24 books in the first 3 months of the year. My Goodreads goal for all of 2016 was just 25 books (met mainly because of a 40-something book juvenile series I came across, but that's a story for another post). Being the brave soul that I am, I upped my 2017 goal to 50 books. Six months to read 25 books...I could do that. In mid-January, my father began what would turn into an almost three month hospital stay in Asheville. This would, of course, mean long nights sitting up at the hospital. However, I also discovered that #1 Audiobooks counted on the WRC and #2 I could listen to about 2 discs a day on the roughly 90 minute commute up the mountain and back every day. SCORE! It was like racking up twice the books with half the effort. After this came a Book Challenge I found online and a Book Bingo I began with a few coworkers. Thirty books came, then forty. I was a veritable reading machine!

Then, one day, I found myself doing what I always despised hearing people do. I caught myself saying, "Well, I have read *insert number* of books since January." I stopped. My first thought was "Oh no! I have become a 'book bragger.'" A "book bragger" is not an official library term, but, you know who they are. They're the ones who check out a stack of books and make those annoying comments like "This may seem like a lot to you, but I will have them finished before the week is out." They're the ones who try to make you actually believe they flew through The Pilgrim's Progress before lunch so they would have plenty of time to finish Gone With The Wind by bedtime. They're like the kid in High School who started each conversation asking about your class rank, GPA, or what you made on the S.A.T. You know them...and you secretly detest them. Worst of all, I was becoming one of them. This made me step back and evaluate. WHY was I doing this? Was it really because I wanted to unplug and get back to reading more like I had told everyone or was it for a more selfish reason? Did I want to branch out and read some different things or was it just to look impressive?

I decided I would rather have fun with it. I read because I enjoy it, not just to look like a book snob. (F.Y.I. - If I make a reference to something Shakespearean I've read, it's not to look smart. It's because I actually like his stories. I know...I'm weird that way.) There's no one to beat. It's not a race. It's okay to get side-tracked and spend a lot of time on one book or read it again (which I did with The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher...4 times). The Challenge and the Book Bingo are just guidelines, not commandments. (This is a good thing, I've decided. Since I've discovered Craig Johnson, all bets are off. 😀) I did up my Goodreads goal to 60 books. When I reach that, I will probably raise it again. There's still the little voice in the back of my head that wonders if I could possibly read 100 books in 2017. If I don't, though, it's okay. The goal is take something away from each thing I read (even if it's "this author should never write again") and enjoy the journey. 365 days is a long time to read.

Donna