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.)

1. Water For Elephants:  FIVE STARS – Loved it!
2. The Hunger Games:  FIVE STARS – Loved it! The whole series is pretty much amazing, but this was my favorite of the 3 books.
3. Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, Book 2):  FIVE STARS – Loved it!
4. Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, Book 3):  FOUR STARS – Really liked it.
5. Divergent:  FOUR STARS – Really liked it
6. P.S. I Love You:  TWO STARS – It was ok.
7. Never Let Me Go:  THREE STARS – Liked it.