Book Goals for 2008

I've decided that I'm going to put my book goals for 2008 down on paper..well, virtual paper, anyway. I'm shooting to read 150 books by the end of the year. With Back Spin and The Judas Goat, I'm at 29, so I'm slightly behind at this point. I will NOT opt to rush through books just to reach this goal, however. I'm still going to savor every word, nuance, device, joke, allusion...everything. I'm also not going to opt for tiny little books that I can finish in a matter of hours. I'm going to tackle my already-established "to read" list. This goal just gives me a focus. Also included in this goal is my goal to read at least one book a month that I already own. This means I had to have owned it prior to 2008, so no new purchases count toward this goal. If you'll recall I've already read these books toward that goal:

January - The Great Santini (Pat Conroy)
February - Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (John Berendt)
March - Judgement Calls (Alafair Burke)

This month's book is Faithless by Karin Slaughter. Here's the updated schedule for the next few months:

May - Sacred (or Shutter Island) by Dennis Lehane
June - Atonement by Ian McEwan
July - Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
August - I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
September - The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Sutterfield
October - The Black Ice by Michael Connelly

As usual, I'll be keeping track of my books here with reviews and on http://www.goodreads.com/. Check back to see how I'm doing. And always feel free to comment on anything you think is a must-read!

Book-A-Month

I may have mentioned earlier that I made a commitment to read at least one book that I already own each month. This doesn't count any new books I buy or ones people give me, but ones I've already had (I have over 100 to choose from). I read more than one book a month, but at least one of them has to be one from this library I already own. You may know my syndrome - the book buying syndrome. I buy books and have them to read, but then I get ones from the library or new books come out or a friend loans me a book. So, the ones I already have get put aside. And my mentality is always "I own that one; I can read it any time I want to." Well, if I don't get to reading some of them, they'll have to bury me with them so I can read them in the next life! That was the reason for the commitment. I've been keeping up so far, but I was able to read two in December, so I need to alter my list.

My original list was:

December - Bones to Ashes (Kathy Reichs)
January - The Great Santini (Pat Conroy)
February - Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (John Berendt)
March - Black Echo (Michael Connelly)
April - Faithless (Karen Slaughter)
May - Sacred (Dennis Lehane)

So, December and January I read my chosen books. I also read Black Echo in December. I'm going to get my fill of John Berendt as I'm presently reading his City of Falling Angels for my book group. I was thinking I might put the next Harry Bosch book in for March, but I would also like to get started on Alafair Burke. I have all four of her books and haven't had a chance to start them yet. Therefore, my revised and updated list now looks like this:

February - Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (John Berendt)
March - Judgement Calls (Alafair Burke)
April - Faithless (Karen Slaughter)
May - Sacred (Dennis Lehane)
June - Atonement (Ian McEwan)
July - Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen)

We'll see how this goes. Of course, if I have time for more than one of my "owned" books, I'll definitely fit them in. But there are a number of books coming out this year that I'm interested in as well. The one I blogged about yesterday from the NYTimes website is one, Linda Fairstein's Killer Heat comes out in March, Robert Crais has a new Elvis Cole novel due out the beginning of June or July, Michael Koryta has Envy the Night coming out in August, and I'm interested in reading John Grisham's new novel The Appeal. I requested it from the library, but it'll be awhile before I get it. I'm about 1200 on the list!