A NEW YEAR OF PAGES AND STAGES

Every year, I make all sorts of resolutions, usually about reading and email and keeping in touch with people. I guess this year is no different, but I'm trying to keep my goals achievable. If you're reading this, I would love for you to share your goals and/or resolutions via a comment on this blog.

First, I have three stacks of books on my shelf, all in varying stages of reading completion. I don't really know what makes me put a book down unfinished, but usually it's because I'm not totally absorbed in it. It's very hard for me to sustain reading when I'm not completely engaged in a particular book. However, I came up with a goofy little plan that is already working for me, so I'm going to commit to it for the whole year and see what happens. I read two books at a time now, not counting my bathroom book and my purse book. I alternate reading a chapter in one book, then a chapter in the other. When one of them really grabs my attention and I feel compelled to keep reading, I do that until I finish the book or my interest level drops again. Using this method, I've alread finished three books that I had started and put down. (Oh, the other trick is to make sure that one of the books is something I actually want to read.)

Another goal I've set for myself is that I cannot buy another book until I've read 10 of the books I already own. Since I literally have thousands of books I haven't yet read, I'm hoping this will help me whittle down Mt. TBR. If you know me really well, you know I'm going to struggle with this one, so I have allowed myself one option: I can take books from the various swap shelves I visit, but I actually have to have a book to swap out for each book I want to take.

My reading goal remains the same: I want to read 183 books this year, and I'd like to average 300 pages per book. I fell short in 2008 by almost 20 books, and my page average was 279.5 (I read a lot of YA and listened to a few audiobooks), so I'm going to have to work harder this year to reach those goals.

The good news is, my dual book reading plan will mitigate my reluctance to tackle reading really long books. I kind of resent reading books over 500 pages, because it's a lot of time to invest on one book, and it skews my numbers. Reading two books at once, though, I'll be able to keep adding to my books read while at the same time tackling some of those super-long books that I keep petting but putting down.

Here's to a prolific reading year in 2009!