Twenty-Five Years of Reading: 06/09/12

Twenty-five years ago I realized I couldn't remember the titles of books I had enjoyed. The one that sent me over the edge was The Active Enzyme, Lemon Freshened Junior High School Witch. Since I didn't want to forget any more titles, I began keeping a handwritten list of every thing I've read: books and short stories. As college undergraduate I also included all the academic articles I had to read because I felt like all my fun time reading was being away by the assigned reading. Now that I'm older, I don't include the articles but everything else still goes into there.

The most I've ever managed to read was back in 2009-10. It was the first year after losing my job as a web producer. I hadn't started library school yet, so I had a lot of time on my hands. I read to keep myself sane during the unfruitful and frustrating job search.

Now, though, I'm slowing down. Part of that is due to school work (now finished) and part is due to spending more time on longer books. My youngest is now able to read to herself so I'm not reading as many picture books any longer. Sure, she still likes to hop on my lap for a story here and there but it's not the three or four books a day routine that we had going for a while.

You'll notice that in my month by month chart, I include June twice. That's because my calendar year for this list runs from June 9th-June 8th. So The first June on the chart is last year's set. Back then I was still reading to my daughter on a regular basis, so there's a huge jump there.

The frustrating thing, though, about reading so much while running a book blog is that I just can't possibly review each and every book in real time. I used to try that back in 2006-8. It was frustrating and resulted in poorly written reviews. Now, though, I've restricted myself to only one review per day. So if I read more than 365 books in a year, some of those books will have be left out of the reviews. Also, I keep two lists: one of reviews I still need to write and another list of reviews I've written but haven't had the time to post. I currently have enough reviews to last me to about April of next year! I also have my review posting roughly scheduled through to about mid November. Of course the order of reviews can (and probably will) change as I read more and write more reviews.

Other posts:

• 24 Years of Reading
• 675 Books in a Year
• Why YA Matters

Comments (2)

Comment #1: Wednesday, June 13, 2012 at 21:53:23

Shelleyrae @ Book'd Out

It's an impressive record! Congrats!

Comment #2: Wednesday, June 13, 2012 at 19:42:15

Pussreboots

Thank you!