Reading Goals

In the remake of "Sabrina" (the one with Harrison Ford and Greg Kinnear), there's a part where Sabrina is talking to her father (the chauffeur for the family) as he sits in a comfy wing chair surrounded by piles of books on every surface in the room and another in his hand.  She says that she loves the fact that he took a job as a chauffeur so he'd have time to read.  That is my favorite inspirational moment from almost any movie I can think of.

I, too, have piles of books sitting everywhere and really love to pick up a new book -- there is such a sense of anticipation.  I generally have one or two books that I'm reading at any given time, and often another in audio format in my car.  Not sure how I came across it, but I found a site to keep track of reading (Goodreads) and love the ability to track what I've read and when, as well as keeping a quick rating of what I thought of it.  Additionally, I've been keeping an excel spreadsheet list of my reading since 2005.  I just track what I read and note whether it was fiction or non-fiction, when I read it, whether it was audio, and whether or not it was in condensed or abridged format.

The last couple of years, I've actually set goals:  this year I wanted to read 100 books, but I don't think I'll make it.  I did so much reading this year, but it was a lot of magazines and informational pieces about gardening -- both during my Master Gardener class and afterward.  I also read gardening books and did count those, but not the magazines or web articles.  Still, with all of that side reading and my volunteer work, I'm still doing pretty well.  As of today, I'm at 50 books for the year and I still have three months to go.

Recordkeeping:
2005 - 50 (but I didn't start keeping track until May)
2006 - 58
2007 - 99
2008 - 89
2009 - 105
2010 - 76

I guess the goal of 100 was pretty ambitious considering the past years.  I also had a lot of condensed books in 2005 and 2006, quite a lot of condensed and audio in 2007, and a lot of Nancy Drew in 2009.  Those are really short and easy reads so maybe that number is a bit padded.  This year, so far, I have a ton of audio and that has really made the difference for me.

Well, we'll see how the next three months progress.