Updates! Updates! Updates!
Hello again! I apologize for lack of posts for the last few months. Things got away from me a bit. So, in order to make amends, I am going to do a surge of posting in the next few days! So that will probably be like maybe 3 posts within a few days! That's a personal record!
So, let's get the ball rolling with today's post. Updates on my 2013 reading challenge. I had set the goal of 40 books for 2013, and I managed to read 48! You can see some of my reviews in previous posts. And while I enjoyed most, if not all of those books, I only wrote reviews for a few of them. I know it's a bit ironic that I feel rather anxious about offering my opinions about the works of others when I want nothing more than the opinions of my friends and peers regarding my own efforts. Maybe it's because I do care about those opinions, I feel like I have to give a really solid review of my own when writing one, and sometimes I just don't have the words. Yes, that is another irony that is not lost on me. A writer (aspiring or otherwise), who lacks the words to properly describe thoughts and feelings. I think an added layer of complexity is the fact that I don't want to give a bad review in such a public forum as goodreads, amazon, etc. When I don't like a book, I feel that my rating should reflect that. I shouldn't go the extra step of calling out every single thing I felt didn't measure up. Good or bad, that's how I justify it.
Returning to the overall goal of 40 books, I thought that was rather ambitious since I hadn't really set that as a goal until late summer/early fall. And while I am extremely glad I did set it, and even happier that I met it, I feel that it has led me to read books that are more for enjoyment rather than any other real purpose. You have to read fast(ish) and with dedication in order to meet a goal of 40 or more while still having a full-time job and friends. Not to mention the holidays and how much time they take up! Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading the books from last year, but I think I am going to try and read some non-fiction or some sort of educational books as part of this year's batch of books on my road to 50! Unfortunately, nothing I've read so far really meets that goal... though The Ship Captain's Wife wasn't exactly an easy read. I felt like I involuntarily learned about seafaring without actually being able to convert that knowledge into something I could apply anywhere else. Ah well, such is life!
Now that my year's ambitions for reading have been documented, all that's left is for me to carry them out. Here's hoping! And here's hoping, too, that I will be a better blogger moving forward. One can only hope...
So, let's get the ball rolling with today's post. Updates on my 2013 reading challenge. I had set the goal of 40 books for 2013, and I managed to read 48! You can see some of my reviews in previous posts. And while I enjoyed most, if not all of those books, I only wrote reviews for a few of them. I know it's a bit ironic that I feel rather anxious about offering my opinions about the works of others when I want nothing more than the opinions of my friends and peers regarding my own efforts. Maybe it's because I do care about those opinions, I feel like I have to give a really solid review of my own when writing one, and sometimes I just don't have the words. Yes, that is another irony that is not lost on me. A writer (aspiring or otherwise), who lacks the words to properly describe thoughts and feelings. I think an added layer of complexity is the fact that I don't want to give a bad review in such a public forum as goodreads, amazon, etc. When I don't like a book, I feel that my rating should reflect that. I shouldn't go the extra step of calling out every single thing I felt didn't measure up. Good or bad, that's how I justify it.
Returning to the overall goal of 40 books, I thought that was rather ambitious since I hadn't really set that as a goal until late summer/early fall. And while I am extremely glad I did set it, and even happier that I met it, I feel that it has led me to read books that are more for enjoyment rather than any other real purpose. You have to read fast(ish) and with dedication in order to meet a goal of 40 or more while still having a full-time job and friends. Not to mention the holidays and how much time they take up! Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading the books from last year, but I think I am going to try and read some non-fiction or some sort of educational books as part of this year's batch of books on my road to 50! Unfortunately, nothing I've read so far really meets that goal... though The Ship Captain's Wife wasn't exactly an easy read. I felt like I involuntarily learned about seafaring without actually being able to convert that knowledge into something I could apply anywhere else. Ah well, such is life!
Now that my year's ambitions for reading have been documented, all that's left is for me to carry them out. Here's hoping! And here's hoping, too, that I will be a better blogger moving forward. One can only hope...
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