Reading Challenge in Back entries: 2013 - 2015

I’ve been working nights recently, and I’m trying to get my system back to “normal” in the short time I have between my last night shift and my next morning shift. My last night shift was last night, and I’ve not been in bed since 3.30 yesterday afternoon. So I’m likely to be off topic and babbling a bit this entry. Sorry.

As I flick through my book journal for last year, I’m conscious of the fact that I could do with reading a bit more of a variety. So I’ve been looking around the odd website or two and pinched a few ideas to “make-my-own” reading challenge.

I’ve set myself a goal of 52 books this year, most of which I’ve decided are to be books that I already own. I have a huge “TBR” pile, and want to try and reduce that a little bit. The only time I see myself going into bookstores is if there’s a book that has that “OMG-MUST-READ” feel, a la Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (brilliant book, btw).

I’m not really fussed about the amount of pages, as I’m aware that some books take me a shorter time to read than others…case in point, the first Harry Potter book took me the bulk of a domestic flight to read and I wasn’t really trying to finish it before we landed. (I’m one of those people who likes to sit by the window on short flights and watch the world below. Long haul flights, I prefer the aisle seat so that I can get up and stretch my legs without disturbing my neighbour). I used to do a particular book challenge that seemed to prove popular on Open Diary, which I dropped out of the last year it was on I think. I got bored of the “Thou hast to read X number of pages per book” bit....One of the books I’m determined to read this year is The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin. My copy is published by Corsair Publishing and is a meagre 139 pages in length. What makes that less of a book than (for example) Germania by Simon Winder (466 pages, including Bibliography, Illustrations, Acknowledgements and Index)?

I want to read more classics this year, and to read a couple of books I’ve bought under the “Blind Date With A Book” theme that my favourite bookshop has going. I also want to try and read the odd Shakespeare play - I picked up a copy of Othello today, so I’ve got no excuse. I wouldn’t mind reading more books and short stories by Indigenous authors, so I want to keep an eye out for that. Plus various books on history, as I’m aware I’m not all that well-read in that department.

Anyway, I best go to bed. It’s nearly 11pm, and I’m just about ready to fall asleep in front of the computer.

Last updated December 21, 2015