I know that pretty much everyone says this, but seriously, how can it be December already? I honestly can’t account for where the time has gone, although I feel like it’s been a generally good year. But December? Seriously? I can’t get my head around it.
November was a busy month, with work, with life, and with the blog thanks to Nonfiction November. I didn’t get as much reading in as I wish that I had, but I’m satisfied with the books that I did read this month:
- Nordberg, Jenny: The Underground Girls of Kabul (nonfiction)
- Oliver, Lauren: Rooms (fiction)
- Horn, Stacy: The Restless Sleep (nonfiction)
- Hillebrand, Laura: Seabiscuit (nonfiction)
- Faber, Michael: The Book of Strange New Things (fiction)
I also ended up rereading On Immunity by Eula Biss for a freelance review I needed to turn in, but I’m not sure if that really counts in my overall reading total or not.
Without counting On Immunity, I’m at 91 books read for the year. My Goodreads goal for the last several years has been 100 books, but that’s been a soft goal — I’ve consistently read closer to 105 to 110 books per year. I like setting the goal a little low so I feel good hitting it. This year, I’m not even sure I will — it’s going to be tough to finish nine books in December.
A Look to December
December is a slow month in publishing, which means I don’t have any review copies I need to make time for this month (that I can remember anyway). I’ve also slowed way down on the number of review copies I’m accepting, so I only have a couple for January that I might try to squeeze in — Whipping Boy by Allen Kurzweil (a memoir about a man’s search for his boarding-school bully) and Almost Famous Women by Megan Mayhew Bergman (short stories about women who attained celebrity).
Other than that, I’ve got books I brought home for Thanksgiving, books I found during Nonfiction November, or books about football to grab my attention. There are a lot of options.
And since it’s the end of the year, there are lots of options for blogging. I’ve been slow on writing reviews, so I’m hoping to do some detailed posts about my favorite reads from the year and dig into my reading stats for 2014. And Adam (Roof Beam Reader) just announced the 2015 TBR Challenge which is so tempting!
Life’s a little crazy, but I’m not sure I’d have it any other way. What books are you excited to read in December?
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This will be a slow month for me because I have so much going on – I’m sure you know exactly what I mean.
Yes! I’m thinking December will be a little quieter than January, but not much. Lots of holiday celebrations!
I didn’t get through as many books I was hoping in November either but I was really happy with the ones I finished. I have decided that December is going to be the month that I read books on my shelf that I really want to read but for whatever reason haven’t opened yet. I think it will be a perfect lead into the TBR Challenge so I will most likely be signing up for that. I’m curious about Whipping Boy so I look forward to your thoughts whenever you read it.
That’s a great way to end the year. I think I may do a bit of backlist reading myself this month.
I think On Immunity does count even if it is a re-read… you read it 🙂 I re-read Philosophers Stone and while Goodreads will not count it as I already reviewed it, I do count it in my 2014 reading
I did reach my 2014 Goodreads goal of 120 this year and surpassed it… I think this may be the year I read (and listened) to the most books ever.
That’s awesome! I love seeing how many audio books you are able to fit into your day. It’s inspiring!
I didn’t bother with setting a goal on Goodreads this year because I felt too pressured to meet my goal last year. However, one thing I realized with Goodreads afterwards is that you need to add a book as “reading” it first before you mark it as “read” (which effectively creates both a start and a finish date for the book) or it doesn’t count towards your goal. If you just rate a book and add it, it won’t appear in your stats. So the books being tallied toward your goal may not tell the whole story.
I don’t really feel much pressure with the Goodreads goal — I just check in with it once in awhile to see how things are going. I did know that you need to make sure you add a “finished” date for it to count in your goal for the year. I hadn’t noticed you have to add a start date too. Either way, I don’t think I’m missing any… just a slow reading year 🙂
I’m involved in readalongs of Wuthering Heights and Little Women, and I have a review copy of The Hollow Land by Jane Gardam to work on as well. All re-reads, so I know I will love them! I also have the first of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan trilogy, My Brilliant Friend, from the library — I must finish that before my library fast starts on January 1.
Sounds like a good month of reading!
I have a few books to wrap up in December and I’d like to read The End of the Affair by Graham Greene, but I am determined to spend the time between Christmas and New Year’s reading nothing but comfort reads. And I agree with you… the TBR Pile challenge is very tempting.
A couple of years ago I used the space between Christmas and New Years to read all the way through a YA trilogy. I thought that was kind of fun — I’m considering pulling out Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials for a reread. It’s dark, but I think counts as a comfort read 🙂
I remember the days when I read 100+ books a year. I miss those days. I won’t even hit 50 this year! Unless I count children’s books.
Life happens 🙂 I’m sure if/when we have kids, I won’t have nearly the time to read. I’m trying to enjoy it now!
I think On Immunity counts! Even though it doesn’t increase the number of different titles you’ve read, it increases the number of books you read.
If I end up needing to count it to hit 100, then I will do that!
Ah, definitely join up on the TBR Challenge! They’ll all be books you were meaning to read anyway, right? 🙂
I tried to do that challenge a couple of times and failed miserably! No matter how excited I am to read a book, as soon as it goes on a challenge pile I seem to lose interest in it! It’s so sad!
On Immunity definitely counts! I have quite a number of books I would love to finish before the year is over, so I’m trying to squeeze them in this month.
I think if I trim back on my television watching, I’ll be able to get a bit more reading in this month — that’s the plan anyway!
Will your review of On Immunity be online (and if so, can you provide a link)? I’m curious to get your thoughts on that.
I’m just so excited you read Seabiscuit. I finally read it this year, too, and couldn’t believe how much I loved it.
So is Seabiscuit as good as Unbroken? I’m ripping thru Unbroken at break-neck speed. It’s amazing. I plan to go back and read Seabiscuit too. Cheers
Hmmm… it’s really good, but in a different way. The stakes of the story are so different — horse racing versus survival in a POW camp — it’s hard to really compare them. I did whip through them equally as quickly, so they’re absolutely both great reads… just not sure if I can compare them on equal footing, you know?