Disclaimer....I wrote this on February 1st. Its February 16th and I'm just posting this. Actually its February 17th because I fell asleep with the boys and then woke up and wanted to watch the Olympics so its almost 2 am and I'm wide awake. Anyway...pretend its February 1st with me for a moment.
It's February 1st, which means I suppose I need to get really focused on my goals for this year. I am not totally sure where January went, but it has come and it is gone. Here we are on February 1st and I have not written out my 18 for '18, and I have not shared with you my word of the year, and even my word of the month, but I am going to start doing that now.
In a series of blog posts, you're going to find my 18 for '18, my word of my month, and then some separate goals and challenges that I'd like to talk about. So, a focus on fitness goals, a focus on certain relationship goals, how they all work together, a focus on career and business goals, and of course a focus on book goals. This is about my book goals. I've known this goal since about half way through last year. What can I say. I love book goals.
Last year, I challenged myself to read 52 books, which means obviously a book a week. The way I was going to achieve that goal was a balance of reading books and a balance of Audible helping me out. I listen to a lot of books while I'm driving, or cleaning the kitchen, or doing the dishes, or running, or whatever. It was a combination of those two things. Of course what it meant was there were certainly books that I chose not to read.
For example, someone suggested I try the Game of Thrones series. I thought, "Yeah. No, that book is really long. Or books are really long." Or I downloaded a book about the Donner Party, which is actually makes me remember that I want to read that while it's cold. (better get on that!) But I listened to an interview on NPR and it was about this man who wrote this very lengthy 16-hour book on the Donner Party and I downloaded it but I haven't listened to it yet because I didn't want to spend the time. There was a lot of sort of choosing wisely, choosing shorter books, and staying away from books that I know that I struggle with.
So, this year, I have a different set of goals. I have a shelf of books in our bookcase that I have been meaning to read, have started to read, have never finished, and just continue to struggle with. I want to get those books off my shelf. Now, maybe they will be passed along to the next person or maybe they will be put on my shelf of books, of books that I love and I may read it in another point in my life or I may not. Like my Jane Austen novels, and Little Women, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, these are some of my favorite books. East of Eden. These are some of my favorite books that I just want to have a home that has them in my home.
There are about 15 of these books that have been stalking me for years. Now, not every single book here is been waiting to be read for years and years. Some of them are just books that I have picked up in the last year or two and I just want to get them off my plate, but a number of these have been here for a while. Passage to India, I've made it to about page 70 in that book and I've never finished it. The Good Earth, Beloved, these are total classics and the problem is as often with many books, you need to get over that hump before you really want to read them. I just get too tired at night.
This year's really going to be me putting on a priority to find 10 minutes every day to read these books until I get to the point where I'm so excited to read them, I'm devouring them. That eventually happens with most books. Some of these books I picked out because I had friends who suggested them or they were hand-me-downs, but nonetheless they are books that have been on my list to read for a while.
That is what this year is all about. I have read one book in the month of January, so I'm not off to an excellent start. I have not listened to any Audible books in the month of January, so, once again, not an excellent start. But my goal is to just read as many of these books as I can both because I want to read them but also just to feel like I can check them off the proverbial book list and get them off my plate so I can move onto other books,
My question for you is are there any books that you have wanted to read for years and years and you've been putting off because if there are, and even better if they're one of the books on this shelf, we can do it together, which I would really love to do, working on this together. So, let me know what books are on your lifelong list to read? Or do you have a different goal for books to read this year?