Challenge issued. Goal met.
Posted By Ing on December 26, 2009
A short post to advert you to the fact that — as evidenced on my 50 for 09 page — I took up the challenge of reading 50 books in the year 2009, and met the goal. Surpassed it, actually.
I could have (and probably should have) read a lot more than the 57 books I’ve counted so far. I go through phases where I may read more or less than average, but as a general rule I read a lot. Finishing 50 books in one year wasn’t difficult.
There were a few times when the 50-book milestone helped remind me to pick up another book, but there were just as many times when I went a good 2 weeks without starting a new one. There were also times when I consumed a handful of average-length novels in a single week (and times when I didn’t keep track very well; I’m sure there are at least a couple of books I forgot to put into my list).
Maybe I can tack on one more in the next 4 days.
But for now I’m content to bask in my own smugness. I read good. An’ I read a lots.
Maybe it’s because I don’t do a whole lot else (I mean, some people actually write books; that’s probably a higher calling, and definitely a higher skill, than simply reading them). Maybe it’s because I’m addicted, and I have to read ever-increasing amounts to make my brain feel good (at work it’s part of my job to read, and sometimes I ignore other parts of my job to do the reading parts, and then follow up that reading with even more reading of my own, and when I’m not reading novels I’m devouring the contents of the Internets, page by page, site by site).
But if reading is an addiction, I’m fine with it. In fact, if I can think of any way I’d like to go when Deity calls me home, it’d be with a good book open in my hand (and rock music rattling the windows).
Maybe next year I’ll shoot for 75.
That’s freaking awesome. I think I may have only read about a dozen books last year, maybe a few more. I don’t think I could name them all. Of course, most of them were massive epic fantasies. The Gathering Storm clocked in at 776 pages. I just checked out three of the others I read, and they have 677, 642, and 622 pages. If I were to attempt this 50 books in a year thing, I think I’d have to modify it somehow to consider page count. But wait . . . did you read any huge tomes, Ing? If you did, then my little attempt at justification fails and I’ll just have to be ashamed.
Good for you, Ing. I think more people should read. It’s good for you. But, I do agree that it’s an addiction. And it can be just as bad as any other addiction other there.
Some nights, I find myself knocking on my teenager’s door at one in the morning. My hands are sweating, I’m fidgeting, and, damn it, I just need a fix. The minute our eyes meet, he knows. He can see I’m in a bad way, he knows all the signs by now. He’ll calm me down and find something in his books that I haven’t read before, just to hold me over.
And, if it’s a good fix, you just can’t put it down. Your eyes get blood shot, your skin’s pasty white from lack of sunshine, and you become sleep deprived. That’s the one that gets me the most. Still, I know, on some deep level, reading is good for me. (At least, that’s what I tell myself.) =)
Thanks, Ben and Theadra. As for the massiveness of the books, I have to admit most of them weren’t epically weighty tomes. The Richard Sharpe novels are all fairly short (there are at least 20 of them, and together they might barely add up to 5 George RR Martin style epics), but the majority of my reading consisted of standard-length novels. I read a few big ones–the Twilight and Harry Potter books aren’t exactly small–but they’re not exactly difficult to get through, either. :)
Your “book fix” cracked me up, Theadra. My kids aren’t old enough to save me with their personal collections yet, but aside from that, I’ve totally been there. I read an article once, long ago, about how some psychologists compared the desire-and-reward mechanism in heavy readers to the general pattern of psychological addiction, and it fit. The difference being that it’s pretty difficult to kill yourself with a reading addiction (though I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s been done). And that we can tell ourselves it’s actually GOOD for us; after all, they teach it in school, don’t they? (Yeah, and some kids sell crack on the playground, too.) Heh.