Exceedingly Mundane

Katrina over at Callapidder Days posted a great challenge to get us all reading more. She’s having a “Fall into Reading” challenge and I am going to try to participate. You can read more about it here. Here’s the general idea:

As a quick refresher, the purpose of this challenge is for us to establish some goals for our reading this Fall and then work toward them. Whether you have a pile of books that you’ve been intending to read but just haven’t yet, or you need a gentle prod to finish some books that you started but then abandoned, or you would just like a little accountability as you work through your reading stack, this is the place for you. Read for entertainment, read to learn, read to improve your life, read to be inspired. Just read!

I set a goal last year to read 30 books, and when I had met that goal, I upped it to 35 and finished right around Christmas. This year, I set what I thought was a very ambitious goal for myself, to read 52 books, which works out to one per week. Since I’ve already achieved that goal, I haven’t really set a new number, but just wanted to read whatever and whenever. Most of the books I read do come from the library. It’s just plain more economical for me! 🙂

I do have several books on my bookshelf that I have purchased and want to read. But the majority of books I want to read, including several that are a part of a series, will come from my local library. In addition, I always like to leave a little flexibility as to finding new books, getting good book recommendations, or just plain happening across a book that strikes my fancy. 🙂 Please know that I reserve the right to substitute one book for another at any given point between now and the end of the year. (P.S. I mostly read fiction, I find non-fiction pretty hard to finish!)

I always try to write a blurb when I finish a book, and post it here, so check back if you’d like!

Here’s my list…

Sullivan’s Island by Dorothea Benton Frank (in Progress, Own) – DONE!
204 Rosewood Lane by Debbie Macomber (#2 in a series, Library) – DONE!
311 Pelican Court by Debbie Macomber (#3 in a series, Library) – DONE!
Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith (#2 in a series, Library) – DONE!
Miss Julia’s School of Beauty by Ann B. Ross (Miss Julia series, Library) – DONE!
Sophie’s Heart by Lori Wick (Library) – DONE!
The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble (Library) – DONE!
At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks (Own it) – DONE!
To the Nines by Janet Evanovich (Own it)
Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella (Own it)
Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant (Library) – DONE!

OK, I’ll use this entry and update it as I go along!

1. Tues, Sept 26, 2006 – it didn’t take me long to get off track! I went to the library to get two books from my fall reading list. They didn’t have one of them on the shelves, as they were supposed to. Seems to be lost or misplaced. So, they ordered me a copy from another branch. No biggie. The problem is that I always browse the “New Release” shelf up front when I go in. I saw a recent book by Anita Diamant, who wrote a book I read earlier this year and just loved – “The Red Tent”. I couldn’t just leave it sitting there, so I got that one, and one from my list (“204 Rosewood Lane”). So…. it didn’t take me long to deviate from my list! I’ll have to add this one, and hopefully I can still read the others I had planned and listed. 🙂

ADDED to list – “The Last Days of Dogtown” by Anita Diamant (Library)

2. Wed, Sept 27, 2006 – Finished “Sullivan’s Island” from my challenge list.

3. Tues, Oct 3, 2006 – Finished “The Last Days of Dogtown”, library book I picked up on a whim and added to this reading list.

4. Tues, Oct 10, 2006 – Finished “204 Rosewood Lane”, library book; second in the Cedar Cove series by Debbie Macomber. I LOVE these books, and am going to be so sad when I get to the sixth one (all she has written to date)

5. Tues, Oct 10, 2006 – Finished “Tears of the Giraffe”, library book; second in the No 1. Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith. I like these books, they are simple, and written in a different kind of “voice” but they are growing on me. I plan to keep going with this series

6. Friday, Oct 27, 2006 – I haven’t updated, but I have finished 3 more books from the challenge list – 311 Pelican Court, Miss Julia’s School of Beauty, and Sophie’s Heart. I got all 3 from the library and enjoyed all of them! I’m really looking forward to reading the last Miss Julia book (I think there’s one more out I have not read), as well as working on the remaining 3 books that Debbie Macomber has written in the Cedar Cove series. I think she’s going to continue with this series, and I love it. I even went and signed up for her newsletter, which came in the mail the other day, so I will know when she writes more books 🙂

7. Thursday, Nov 9, 2006 – I finally sloshed through “The Reading Group” by Elizabeth Noble. As I posted in the blog entry about it, I did like the book, but I didn’t just love it. But, I really think it was me. I am either in a bit of a rut, or else this book did not just grab my attention right now, with everything else we have going on. I did like it though, once I figured all of the characters out and could keep them straight without having to flip back to the page outlining who was who 🙂

8. Wednesday, November 15, 2006 – Finished another book on my list (one that I own), “At First Sight” by Nicholas Sparks. I own both the first one, “True Believer” and this follow-up book and have read both. Good books, but not spectacular. Still enjoyed it though! Two more on my list to finish 😀

9. Tuesday, November 28, 2006 – Finished the last two books on my list, To the Nines by Janet Evanovich and Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. Both are books I own, and this challenge really helped me to pull books off of my own bookshelf and read them. And it helped me stay out of both the library and the bookstore.

CHALLENGE COMPLETE!!!