The BARROO Report

Every Monday, I try to post a book report, meaning my goal is to read at least 1 book each week. Sounds good, right?

Well, considering that right now, I have 75 PRINT books waiting to be read, and an estimate of a minimum of 200 ebooks that are unread in my iPad ... reading one book each week isn't going to put much of a dent in things by the end of the year. I'm trying to be "virtuous" and not buy any new books until I read at least, say ... 5 books from the physical, to-be-read rack. That isn't too hard to hold to, since there's no ROOM in the bookrack to put new books. And usually I'm good about keeping to that -- I don't "buy" these books, I either take a bunch of used books I know I'm not going to read, and trade them in, and get a few books from the used bookstore. The problem is that I've joined a bookclub online, and my writing groups keep announcing "my book is free this weekend on Kindle," or something like that ... and the ebook waiting-to-be-read portion of my iPad just keeps getting more and more full!

Another part of the problem is that I have so may deadlines right now ... *sigh* .... who has time for reading? Seriously?

I remember when I thought I was "rich" if I had five books waiting to be read. Yeah, back when I had the leisure to read 2 or even 3 books a week. When I rode the bus to work and there wasn't enough elbow room on the bus to bring my notebook computer and write during the hour-long ride ... Ah, those were the days!

Here's the situation: I promised Sandy at Writer's Exchange I would have NOVA VENDETTA Part 2 to her before the end of the month, so she could format it and release it by the end of the month. PLUS I am under contract to turn in the next Quarry Hall book, tentatively titled NIKKI'S HUNT or NIKKI'S TEST to Desert Breeze by October 1. I am almost done with the 2nd draft/1st revision of NOVA, but I was hoping to have it done by Monday, because I need to get to serious work on the 2nd draft/1st revision of NIKKI, to have it done by the 16th, so I can get to work on the 3rd draft of NOVA, to have that done by the 23rd, so I can spend the "rest" (HAH!) of the month revising and polishing NIKKI to turn in October 1.

So who has time to read?

Someone tell me how I can cut down to, say ... 3 hours of sleep each night, without killing myself or going psychotic? Please?

Okay, we have about 17 or 18 weeks left to the year, so that's 17 or 18 more books off my to-be-read rack. That's nearly a whole shelf. Can I do it? When I manage more than 1 book each week, I'll squeeze in another book report on an off-day. Let's go for 2 whole shelves cleared off my to-be-read rack. Without disappointing my publishers ...........