Only 33 Reading Days Left

November 29, 2013


It’s the end of November and you know what that means…only one more month to finish all the books I’ve started in 2013, and plan for next year’s reading! Danielle at A Work in Progress recently put up a post about finishing the books she’s started so she can start fresh in 2014—admirable plan. I told her I planned to steal her idea, so I rounded up all the books I’m currently reading and I have more in progress than I thought: 

  1. No Name, Wilkie Collins. My copy has just over 600 pages and I’m a little more than halfway through. This is challenging but doable if I read about 60 pages a week. I’m enjoying the story and the writing immensely, but it’s not a book you can whiz through or you’ll miss too much.
  2. Against Wind and Tide, Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The final collection of AML’s letters and journals, spanning the years 1947-1986. Another book I prefer to savor rather than gallop through.
  3. Some Buried Caesar, Rex Stout. Light reading at bedtime, featuring Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin and a prize bull (the Caesar in question).
  4. Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being, Martin Seligman. Happiness research that deserves and hopefully will get its own blog post.
  5. Personal Pleasures, Rose Macaulay. Essays. I just started this book, and it deserves to be savored also, so if any book makes the cross over into 2014, it will be this one.
  6. The Daily Mirror, David Lehman. A journal in poetry. A few times a week, I read a couple of poems before bed. I’m in December already, so should have not trouble finishing.
  7. Wherever You Go, There You Are, Jon Kabat-Zinn. I read a few pages of this book (on meditation) every morning. As long as I continue that, I’ll finish by Dec. 31st.
Looks like I have a lot of reading to do between now and the end of December!

Then what? There’s that unending TBR stack that I’ve barely made a dent in. There are new reading challenges on the horizon. I’m sure there will be reading at whim, detours and bookish wanderings…and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Reading is one of my favorite simple pleasures and contributes greatly to my happiness.

Do you have any end-of-the-year reading plans? Have you already started thinking of what you want to read in 2014?

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4 comments

  1. That sounds like fun. I am savoring "Flight Behavior" by Barbara Kingsolver right now.

    Hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

    Kathy M.

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  2. Good to hear from you, Kathy! Hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful. Ours was quiet and very enjoyable.

    I liked Flight Behavior--what do you think of it?

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  3. I think your stack is much more manageable than mine!! :) I like the idea of starting fresh in 2014 but I might end up putting a few 'languishing' books back on the shelf--I tend to be too enthusiastic about my books and what I can read at once! Not that I will stop picking up new books before finishing in progress reads.... I still have AML's first book of letters/diaries on my night stand. The Nero Wolf sounds good as does Personal Pleasures--let me know how it goes since I have it on my shelves, too! I have done the same thing in a few cases...count how many pages left and how many I would need to read to finish by the end of the year. AND I have a few ideas for plans for next year. Oh, I do love books and reading! :) Good luck finishing and clearing the decks so to speak!

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  4. We'll see if I can get through them all, Danielle. I've suddenly gotten into No Name, and have been reading it more than anything else. I'll let you know about Personal Pleasures. So far I like it very much, though I'm only two or three essays in. It also makes good bedtime reading. (With all the stuff I read at bedtime, it's a wonder I ever go to sleep...)

    Books and reading--definitely some of my own "personal pleasures"!

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