I love to read. It was one of my favorite childhood activities. I was routinely awarded free personal pan pizzas for all the books I read while participating in Pizza Hut's Book It Reading Program and I would go nuts when we would receive those Scholastic Book Club pamphlets at school. I would circle all the books I just had to have and pass the list on to my stepmother. She would then have me painfully narrow my fifty down to about three. She too enjoyed to read and happily supported my book addiction instead of catering to the latest barbie/plastic toy fad. I was an avid book collector in my youth and still very much am as an adult.
But rather than reading a book shortly after I get it, I now find I am adding more books to my collection than I am actually reading-- more like fostering them rather than fully committing to the adoption. I have an area called Limbo Land, AKA my bedside table, on which the Unread are piling up. Even worse is the Purgatory Basket for those books not quite lucky enough to stay in Limbo Land. There you will find all the books I pulled out with the intention to read but never finished. And because I have not read them yet, I refuse to place any back in our library where they will surely get lost amongst the Already Read.
See Exhibit A. (Limbo Land) / B. (Purgatory Basket)
The reason I have such difficulty finishing a book these days is due to the fact I only allocated bedtime for reading, which means I simply read myself to sleep. I lay down to read and about mid chapter in I'm fighting to stay awake. It's not because the stories are boring, it's just not the best time for me to pickup a book. Now, because I am unable to stay awake, the book gets placed back on my nightstand. Only to receive the same fate the following evening. Once I find myself reading the same chapter over and over again the book gets planted into Limbo Land and another book will be attempted at a later date. I still have full intent to read all these books you see above. And this is how I plan to succeed. By Just Reading! Anytime I have a downtime moment, when I go outside with the canines and by going to bed well before my bedtime. So far I've been able to remove two of the books from my bedside pile. Now that it is Summer, I watch way less television, my main shows are Criminal Minds and Revenge, which thankfully air during the Fall schedule. That gives me more free time to read. Once a book has been completed I will replace the ( * ) with an ( X ). So without further ado here is the list (in no particular order) of my Summer readings:
X Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang - Chelsea Handler
* One Day - David Nicholls
* Dollhouse - Joss Whedon (Fansinated with the television series)
* Handwriting Analysis - Amend and Ruiz
* Freakonomics - Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
* Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (Re-reading a childhood favorite)
* Building Left Brain Power - Allen D. Bragdon
* Zombies VS. Unicorns - Holly Black
* The Casual Vacancy - J.K. Rowling
* In the Woods - Tana French
* The Princess Bride - William Goldman (Re-reading a childhood favorite book and movie)
* City of Ashes - Cassandra Clare (Saw the first book's movie adaptation)
* Beautiful Creatures - Garcia Stohl (Watched movie but was informed the story was different)
* The Informers - Brett Easton Ellis (Read this while in college - I don't remember a thing - HA!)
* The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
X Are You There, VODKA? It's Me Chelsea - Chelsea Handler
X White Girl Problems - Babe Walker
* Fragile Things - Neil Gaimen (One of my favorite authors)
* The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaimen (Again I love Neil's mind)
* Dreams of Joy - Lisa See
* The Kitchen House - Kathleen Grissom
* The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly
* The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (Saw movie but heard the book was loads better)
Content by: Agent J
