Jim's 26 or More in 2017

[Jim]

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I used to read around 100 books a year, but now I have a full-time job with a lot of duties, so for the last few years, I didn't really read much at all and that has made me very sad so now I'm trying to get back into the habit. I set my goal for the year at 26 books back in January, and I'm at 19 in July. I bet I'll make it to 26, but I'm still not sure since Sept. through Dec. will be very busy months for me. I'll re-evaluate my goal when I reach 26.

I'm trying to read for at least 1 hour per day right now. I hope to continue that every day, even during the busy months to come.

A few years ago, I purged a bunch of books from my TBR shelves where everything had stacked up two books deep. I plan to try to make some dent in the remaining backlog over time. I figure, if it survived the purge, I must have a real interest in reading it someday. I haven't yet entered these TBR books into Goodreads, but I will soon so I can do the randomizer challenge. Other reading goals I have are to read all the books I've missed by a few favorite authors and to catch up on the books read in the past by a few bookclubs I've joined here on Goodreads. I recently managed to finish a series I've been working on for over 20 years, the Richard Stark novels. I had to use Inter-library loan for all three of the books I still had to read.

Here's what I've read so far this year:

1. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
2. Way Station by Clifford Simak
3. Hit Me (Keller #5) by Lawrence Block
4. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich
5. Beowulf by Unknown
6. March: Book One by John Lewis
7. March: Book Two by John Lewis
8. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Unknown
9. March: Book Three by John Lewis
10. Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
11. The Rare Coin Score (Parker # 9) by Richard Stark
12. The Seventh (Parker # 7) by Richard Stark
13. Plunder Squad (Parker # 15) by Richard Stark
14. Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama
15. I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
16. The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
17. The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
18. Lives on the Boundary by Mike Rose
19. Mindset by Carol Dweck (I actually started this one back in 2015 and set it aside for a few years before coming back to it).
20. Natchez Burning by Greg Iles
21. The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
22. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
23. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
24. The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang

[Jim]

Finished Natchez Burning today. 865 pages. I'll be reading the other two books in this series ASAP. This was my 20th book for the year. I think I'm surely going to reach my goal of 26 books this year. My biggest challenge is finding time to read, but I'm managing to find at least one hour a day most every day despite whatever else is going on.

[Susy]

Impressive Jim! I try to read every day too but because of work and other stuff not quite managing unfortunately.

[Jim]

Finished my 21st book of the year, The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth.

[Jim]

Finished my 22nd book of the year today, A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. I was very busy in August and didn't finish a book at all in that month. Travel (a two-week trip to Europe) and work ate up my time. I hope to read more in September, but it's looking like I'm going to be busy most of this month, too. I also have a tendency to pick big books: next up is Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon which comes in at over 900 pages . . . . Now that summer is over, I think I'll be doing well to reach my initial goal of 26 books for this year.

[Jim]

I finally finished The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. It took me a couple of months to finish this because I've been really busy at work lately. It's always a struggle to find time to read, but I keep aiming toward that goal by trying to do at least a little bit of reading every day.

[Ilona]

Only three books to go to reach your goal, Jim! Good luck! :)

[Jim]

Finished book 24, The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang