Musings of a Mended Heart: March 2012

I had decided at the beginning of this year to read more. After having a child, the opportunities to get lost in a book for hours (or even 30 minutes) become very rare. I believe I've read less than 10 books, fully, within the 4 yrs of Adalee's life. I have a terrible habit of starting 5 books at once, and whichever book can hold my attention the longest is the one that I finish. The other 4, half-read books get tossed to the side and forgotten. I decided to try my hardest not to do that this year. Start one; finish one.

The first book I started was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Aside from the very far fetched plot (a young boy wandering all over New York, going into strangers homes to find clues that he believes his dead father left behind for him...) I really, really enjoyed it. I finished it in less than 4 days, which was... invigorating. I hadn't finished a book in less than a week in years. It felt so gooood. I started having all kinds of crazy thoughts. At this rate, I could read 2 books/wk. And, technically, that would come out to 8 books/month... 96 in a year! I am going to read 96 books in 2012!

Hence, my overly ambitious goal for 2012 ;)

I have since settled down. My momentary high from finishing one book has waned a bit. The high has died down to what I would describe now as a mere buzz, which still feels excellent. I still want to commit to reading on a regular (preferably daily) basis.

Since reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, I have finished 2 more books. And I am half way through 3 more (yes, I fell back into my habit of juggling multiple books, but instead of choosing 1 and dumping the rest I am committed to finishing them all)

So, my new goal is to read 2 books/month, as a minimum. 24 per year compared to 96 is pretty sad, but at least it's realistic. And, it's much better than the previous quota of 2 per year. If I can finish the 3 I am half way through before April begins, I will still be on track.

2012 Book List:

1. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close- finished

2. Angela's Ashes- finished

Excellent memoir of a young boy growing up poor in Ireland

3. The Hunger Games- finished

Yes, I finally caved and began this teen series. I was very hesitant, due to the popularity of the Twilight series and how disappointed I was in those books. This is much different. Still, it is very obviously written for young teens, but the plot is much more appealing than that awful, vampire, love triangle story line of Twilight.