It’s been six months, I figured everyone deserves an update on my project so far.
Calendar-wise, I’m past the halfway point of my 52 in ’11 goal: In six months, it will be January 1, 2012.
Book-wise, I’m not even close.
OK, things aren’t that bad, I’m about 10 books behind, which isn’t totally out of the realm of possibility, but it sure feels like an uphill battle.
If someone had told me when I was younger that as an adult, I would have to schedule time to read, I would have never wanted to grow up. It’s amazing how hard it is to find the time to sit down and read a book.
At the beginning of the year, I worked really hard at making myself find the time. I’d spend an hour before bed reading every night. But then work got hectic, and my personal life got busy, and I just ran out of time.
Those aren’t excuses, those are just the facts.
So here’s where we go from here. I still have every intention of reading 52 books this year. Or at least I have every intention of finding a way to get as close as possible to that 52 mark. Not because I just want to meet this goal, but because of how much I’ve been enjoying it.
Sure, I’ve read a lot of books that I would have read — or wanted to read — whether I was doing this project or not. But there’s been a lot of other books that I never would have picked up, let alone read or finished, if I didn’t take recommendations from people. And that’s been pretty cool.
My next book is Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell — I have yet to read any of his other books (The Tipping Point, Blink), but they’ve been on my list for years. So I’ve decided now is the time.
Here’s a partial list of the books I have lined up to read (in no particular order):
- From this Moment On by Shania Twain
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
- The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson (especially after listening to the This American Life podcast that was recently done on the test)
- The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
- The Birth House by Ami McKay
- The War for Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy by Bill Carter
- The False Friend by Myla Goldberg
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
And to finish a few books I’ve started that I haven’t been able to get into and finish (namely Enders Game by Orson Scott Card and The Dome by Stephen King).
Any books you think I should read? Add them in the comments below and I’ll add them to the list!
