I'm Getting My Read On

At the beginning of the year, I made some New Year non-Resolutions. I didn't want to officially refer to them as a New year Resolution as it was too much of a commitment for this commitmentphobe to sign up for. One of those non-resolutions was to read my books. Yup....I even qualified it. Books. Not blogs. Not magazines. Not newspapers. Book. Lots and lots of books. I even used Goodreads (I seriously love that website—not only can I stalk my friends reading habits, but sometimes the book reviews are a little more helpful than the ones found on Amazon's website) to track my progress with their 2011 Reading Challenge. At first I started with a goal of 35 books and then bumped it to 40 and then 50 and we are now at a goal of 60 books read by December 31, 2011.

Why the increase in reading material? One word. Actually, two words. My Kindle.

When I first decided to take on the challenge, I had hopes of making my way through the crazy, random library of books residing in one of my spare bedrooms. I used to work at Borders (rest in peace, land of my favorite books sellers—I shall miss you) and took advantage of my employee discount, a lot. More so than I really should have been allowed to. My thought was that I'd make my way through my collection, simultaneously checking books off my giant list of “Oooh, I can't wait to read that book!” books.

But then I bought my Kindle. Klaus V1.0 (I currently own Klaus V2.0 as Klaus V1.0 met his demise when a dog who shall remain nameless *coughcoughsadiecoughcough* knocked him off his perch on the couch, shattering his screen). It was a total game changer.

I took full advantage of the free classics and a great many of the $0.99 self published books (just because you can put pen to paper and tell a story does not mean you are a writer and should be publishing things. And yes. I am calling myself out on this one—I am not a writer and would do well to remind myself of this a little more often) before making my way into the genres of Steampunk and trashy Romance novels (the more pillaging and plundering the better!). In the mix were some books I ended up really liking (Soulless, The Sherlockian), some I loved (Iron Duke, the entire Brides of the Kindred series, Pride & Prejudice & Zombies) and some I hated (if ya'll want to know what those books are, I'm not so bitchy that I'll post them here).

Regardless of the quality (or lack of quality in most cases) of the books I have read, the important thing is that I've read them. Believe me, when I started the year I figured there was no way I'd make it to 35 books (passed it—booya bitches!) or that I'd have to up the ante (currently holding strong at 47 books) to 60. But I have. And I love it!

Tonight I'm starting my next book, which combines two of the three areas of literature I apparently really love: the classics and romance (too bad there isn't a zeppelin or crazy, steam powered robot in this one): Lady Chatterley's Lover. Only one of my friends on Goodreads has read it and didn't give a it a very good review, but considering it's a book that has been the subject of great controversy, it's history begs for it to be read. Hopefully it doesn't disappoint.