In So Many Words

Wow – this fall went by very quickly! I haven’t been posting much about books lately; heck, I haven’t been posting about much of anything – it’s been so busy around here.

Anyway, my goal for Fall Into Reading 2009 wasn’t so much to read specific books as it was to go through my huge list of books to read and clean it out.

This list has been growing steadily on my Shelfari profile, but I don’t always remember to check the list before going to the library. I started with 192 books listed, which included a variety of fiction and non-fiction books, along with some children’s books I wanted to check out for Michael.

So, how did I do? Well, I managed to cut my list in half, either by reclassifying books I had actually read or by removing books that I couldn’t find through the library and wasn’t interested enough in to purchase. I would have read more of the 96 still on the list, but our library is undergoing major renovations and has had a good chunk of their inventory in storage for the last six months.

Thanks to Katrina at Callapidder Days for creating and hosting this challenge. Hopefully, I’ll win one of the prizes and be able to buy a couple of the books from my list!

Earlier this year, I participated in Callapidder Days’ Spring Reading Thing challenge and really enjoyed it. However, I wasn’t very successful in meeting my main goal, which was to finish the various non-fiction books I had started and left laying around the house. I just couldn’t make myself do it. I have read a lot more non-fiction in the last few years than I used to, but none of these were books I felt compelled enough to actually get all the way through and so I didn’t.

Anyway, I wasn’t sure about joining in with this one until I thought of the perfect goal, one that will feed my craving for fiction and my need for organization and lists at the same time. See, I have a huge list of books that I want to read, titles gathered from trips to the local bookstore to see what’s new as well as from book reviews that have caught my eye on various blogs over the last few months.

This list has been growing steadily on my Shelfari profile, but I don’t always remember to check the list before going to the library. There are currently 192 books listed, which also includes some children’s books I wanted to check out for Michael.

So, my goal for Fall Into Reading 2009 is to clear out my “I Plan to Read” list, either by actually reading the books or by eliminating the ones I can’t locate/decide not to read after all.

My plan is to keep trackly weekly of what books I have read and how many are left on my list. Hopefully by December 22nd, I will be down to ZERO! (Of course, that doesn’t mean I won’t add any new books to the list, just that I will be caught up to what I have on there now.)

To find out more about this challenge or join in on the fun, visit Callapidder Days. You can make any kind of goal you want to, even if it’s just to read one book all the way through!

I will post some book reviews soon of what I am reading now, but in the meantime I wanted to share this awesome website I found recently called Shelfari. It is a site where you can catalog all of the books you have read or plan to read – you can tag them with whatever labels you want and give them ratings and write reviews. You can also see other members’ books and ratings/reviews and ask for recommendations about whether to read a certain book. Another neat feature is groups where people either share what they are reading with the group or read a book together for discussion.

I have to warn you: if you are a reader, this is an addicting place. I am not putting everything I’ve ever read, partly because I could never remember them all and partly because some are not worth sharing, but I am almost up to 1100 books so far! They even supply a widget for your blog or other type of social website. Feel free to browse my bookshelf; if you decide to create your own, I would love to know about it.