5 novels in a year – doesn’t sound too hard, right? That means I’d have to read a novel about once every two and a half months over the course of one year. As a person who doesn’t read for enjoyment very often, I still had my doubts about whether I would really make the time for it.
To get started on this goal I downloaded Water for Elephants on the iPad back in March. I started reading the first chapter and didn’t put it down for the next 24 hours. I only stopped reading to sleep – literally. And then I remembered something about myself – something from my childhood that I had forgotten all about in the busyness of adult life – fiction is like crack to me. I absolutely LOVE a good story. I get totally sucked into the characters and the plot line. (It’s the same reason why I love movies so much, they just happen to be a lot smaller time commitment that reading a book.) So in the last six months I haven’t read 5 books, I’ve read 7 and managed to cram in 2 business books on top of that.
Now that I’ve rediscovered how much I love to read fiction (thanks to our 101 in 1001 list) I’m pretty sure I’ll be reading A LOT more. I even set up an account on Goodreads.com so I can keep track of the books I have read and want to read. I love that I can rate each one and connect with other friends to see what they’re reading and what they thought of the books on my list. It’s fun! If you’re a reader you should check it out :-)
Here’s a quick list of all the fictional goodness I’ve been devouring. There’s a link to Goodreads for each book so you can read a summary if you want. (Beware of spoilers though if you have any intention of reading any of them – especially the Hunger Games Series.)
- Water For Elephants: FIVE STARS – Loved it!
- The Hunger Games: FIVE STARS – Loved it! The whole series is pretty much amazing, but this was my favorite of the 3 books.
- Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, Book 2): FIVE STARS – Loved it!
- Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, Book 3): FOUR STARS – Really liked it.
- Divergent: FOUR STARS – Really liked it
- P.S. I Love You: TWO STARS – It was ok.
- Never Let Me Go: THREE STARS – Liked it.
Tags:
#87: Read 5 Novels in One Year (Denise)
August 5, 2011
Aug 5
I should have thought through my 101 in 1001 reading goal a little better. Because I already devour fiction novels like a crazy person with no life, I decided I should stretch my horizons a little and pick ten classics off of BBC’s list. But man – some of them are TEDIOUS to get through (just finished all 900+, small print pages of Count of Monte Cristo… thought I would NEVER finish that sucker.) Wish I was reading more fun books like you are… but that wouldn’t have been a fair goal to add to the list as it’s something I do all the time anyways. Oh well – moving on to the next classic!
Yeah, the classics are tough, although I do love Count of Monte Cristo. One of my favorite books ever. I don’t think I would have made it through if I’d been starting at 900 plus pages. Until now I’ve been barely reading at all so I’m feeling like the easy books are an accomplishment at this point :-) LOL!