Too many books!

I'm sure I've said this before, but there are too many books and not enough time to read them! I sincerely hope that Heaven has a giant library because there's no way I can read everything I want to before I die. My list of books to read on Goodreads is well over 100 and that's with me really restraining myself.

And it's not just books I personally want myself to read. There are the books I need to read for my book club, most of which I'm actually looking forward to. There are the books friends tell me I need to read (I never read The Giver as a kid and so I've been instructed to do so by my friend Angie). And then there are the books I started reading and refuse to give up on now even though they're terrible. So what if I only read a couple of pages a week? I'll have it done in a year or two, tops.

It's a delightful problem to have, but a little frustrating because I know I can't possibly get to all the books I want to. Even if I quit my job and read in a cardboard box, there aren't enough hours in the day.

One of my goals is to at least read every book I own. Ok...maybe not every book I own because I still have tons of books in my bedroom at my parents' house and a collection of nautical books in our second home. I'll read every book at my house for starters. Ok...maybe not every book at my house because some of them aren't even mine; they belong to my husband. So I just need to read the 100 or so books that I own and that are currently in my house. In addition to the book club books and the ones I can't resist downloading onto my Kindle because they're free. In other words, I might read all of them by the end of the decade if I'm lucky.

2014: Crime and Funerals

Ah, another year, another reading goal. Having not quite made my reading goal for 2013 (cough, cough, missed it by a few dozen), I decided to knock it down from 85 to 80 this year. I reduce my goal every year in the hope that my goal and my actual number of books read will eventually meet in the middle. Gone are the days when I try to read a book a day or even read 100 books in a year.

This year I will probably be focusing on Victorian crime and books relating to funeral studies as I am currently fascinated by the former and earning a degree in the latter.

My problem the past few years is that I just haven't applied myself to reading. I read when I have nothing else to do rather than making it a priority in my free time. So as long as Candy Crush dies a fiery death, I'll be good.

In my defense, I did also get married last year.  We had a Moby Dick-themed ceremony in North Carolina and then we renewed our vows in the Seamen's Bethel, which is mentioned in Moby Dick. So yay for me.

Alas

My reading goal for 2011 was 100 books. I made it closer than I did in 2010, when I read only 84. But try as I might, I couldn't manage it this year either. 95 books. So close. On New Year's Eve I powered through a mystery novel I've been reading for about 2 years and read a couple of short plays in between listening to audio books. But those last 5 books were beyond my grasp.

I became a little more realistic with my goal for 2012.

90 books.

Easily doable, right?