My Goal for 2006: Finish My Last Bookcase!
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
2005 Summary
2005 hasn't been a great year for reading. I didn't get a lot of reading done, and I also didn't read a lot of great books. I only read 39 books this year, compared with 96 in 2004. That's my lowest total since my slump of 1998-1999. (I only read 24 books in both those years put together.) [My total only includes books I finished, or came close to finishing. If I dump a book in the first few chapters, I don't include it in my database. And it's mostly romance and romance-type books: I always read a few other types of books, Harry Potter for example, or "how to" books, but I don't put those in my database either.]
I can't completely blame the books for this, although I haven't really been excited about many books this year. But I think the blame has to go in part to a couple of major projects - Celebrate Romance in the first part of the year, and a job-related research project in the second half of the year. I just didn't have a lot of uninterrupted free time. And when I did spend time relaxing, I was more likely to watch a DVD or surf the internet than pick up a book.
But I think the hardest thing this year was the lack of good reads. That's surprising, because I focused my reading in 2005 on working through my stash of books that I'd set aside as "extra good reads". Favorite authors, books that had been highly recommended, books that got rave reviews. So I'm surprised that I didn't find more gems.
I only had one keeper this year (The Mysterious Miss M by Diane Gaston) and one near-keeper (The Duchess's Next Husband by Terri Brisbin) but that's not unusual - I'm very picky about keepers and usually only have one or two a year. But I had a surprisingly low number of "very good" reads - books that I graded 4 or 4.5. And most of those came at the very beginning of the year, although I had a few at the end as well. I didn't have a lot of duds, but there were a lot of books that were just kind of average. Blah. Maybe that's why I haven't read as many books as usual this year - it's hard to stay enthusiastic when you're reading one blah book after another.
I've also felt the lack of contemporary and series books - I enjoy reading them but I'm finding it harder and harder to find the types of books I like in those settings. As much as I enjoy historicals, I find it energizing to alternate them with contemps and series books, but over the last few years, I just haven't found as many contemps as I'd like to buy, at least ones that fit my rather exacting standards. (OK, I'm picky, I admit it. But I just don't much care for suspense, mysteries, most comedies and baby/child/motherhood/sisterhood books, which eliminates a lot of the field in the contemporary market.)
When I started this blog, I was looking at a bookcase full of "TBR" books. I buy a lot of books, and often I'll put a book aside as a "rainy day" book - any book that has the potential to be really good, so I want to save it for a rainy day. Almost every book in that bookcase had been recommended to me at some point, and I wanted to finally read them. I vowed to read my way through that bookcase before reading anything else or before buying any more books. I've read a few other books in the meantime, but not that many - my book buying has been greatly curtailed this year. But I still have 36 books in that bookcase. (And over 1400 TBR books boxed up in my attic, but I don't want to think about those! They're my "retirement" fund.) So the challenge isn't over yet.
So my goal for 2006: finish those last 36 books. When I do that, I will reward myself with a huge book-buying binge. Free, free at last!
I can't completely blame the books for this, although I haven't really been excited about many books this year. But I think the blame has to go in part to a couple of major projects - Celebrate Romance in the first part of the year, and a job-related research project in the second half of the year. I just didn't have a lot of uninterrupted free time. And when I did spend time relaxing, I was more likely to watch a DVD or surf the internet than pick up a book.
But I think the hardest thing this year was the lack of good reads. That's surprising, because I focused my reading in 2005 on working through my stash of books that I'd set aside as "extra good reads". Favorite authors, books that had been highly recommended, books that got rave reviews. So I'm surprised that I didn't find more gems.
I only had one keeper this year (The Mysterious Miss M by Diane Gaston) and one near-keeper (The Duchess's Next Husband by Terri Brisbin) but that's not unusual - I'm very picky about keepers and usually only have one or two a year. But I had a surprisingly low number of "very good" reads - books that I graded 4 or 4.5. And most of those came at the very beginning of the year, although I had a few at the end as well. I didn't have a lot of duds, but there were a lot of books that were just kind of average. Blah. Maybe that's why I haven't read as many books as usual this year - it's hard to stay enthusiastic when you're reading one blah book after another.
I've also felt the lack of contemporary and series books - I enjoy reading them but I'm finding it harder and harder to find the types of books I like in those settings. As much as I enjoy historicals, I find it energizing to alternate them with contemps and series books, but over the last few years, I just haven't found as many contemps as I'd like to buy, at least ones that fit my rather exacting standards. (OK, I'm picky, I admit it. But I just don't much care for suspense, mysteries, most comedies and baby/child/motherhood/sisterhood books, which eliminates a lot of the field in the contemporary market.)
When I started this blog, I was looking at a bookcase full of "TBR" books. I buy a lot of books, and often I'll put a book aside as a "rainy day" book - any book that has the potential to be really good, so I want to save it for a rainy day. Almost every book in that bookcase had been recommended to me at some point, and I wanted to finally read them. I vowed to read my way through that bookcase before reading anything else or before buying any more books. I've read a few other books in the meantime, but not that many - my book buying has been greatly curtailed this year. But I still have 36 books in that bookcase. (And over 1400 TBR books boxed up in my attic, but I don't want to think about those! They're my "retirement" fund.) So the challenge isn't over yet.
So my goal for 2006: finish those last 36 books. When I do that, I will reward myself with a huge book-buying binge. Free, free at last!
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