fifty five and counting (not years.....BOOKS!)

Way back in September I posted a bit about a reading goal.  I had realized that I had actually finished reading 50 books.  If I could have retained interest in the books I've given up on, there would be at least 12 more, but why waste time on reading novels you're not enjoying?  
yeah, why!?
especially if you're reading mainly for pleasure, right?

right!

So I was all excited about the amount of books I read, then decided if I could do that, I could definitely read at least 15 more books by the end of 2012. 

Sure!
....er...

Maybe not.

I went through a marked slowdown of reading.  Ah.....but then I was able to buy many, many, many SciFi books written by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller (husband and wife writing team) because of this wonderful thing called online used bookstores.  I visited Abe Books and was able to buy four omnibus editions, a ppb (Saltation) and hardback by them AND a copy of Terry Pratchett's The Long Earth - all for approximately $55.  That includes the shipping fees.  That's a lot of reading for $55.  I checked out the price going through Amazon** (over $76 WITH free shipping) and The Book Depository **(over $80, with free shipping).  So even though many of the books I ordered through Abe Books cost less than their shipping and handling - not one of the novels cost me more than $5 with the shipping added on.  A very good deal that netted me with 12 novels to read - most of them in very good condition, one of them in almost good condition; good enough for me - who can be rough on ppb's when my grandchildren are in residence. (wink, wink). 

The bottom line of this is that although I was pretty convinced by the week before that I was NOT going to meet my goal of five more books per month - by staying off the internet for five days and being grandchildless for a whole weekend (we usually have at least one of the grandchildren with us) I ended up reading three books in a few days, bringing  my books read up to 55.  I know 55 books is way less than many book bloggers have read by now, but 54 is the amount of books I read year before last, and 55 is a pretty cool number of books for me to have finished by October of any given year.  So I'm happy about it, and now I'm thinking....I've already accomplished one third of my my latest goal.  I now have only 10 more books to read to reach my year goal.....I want to have at least 65 books read by the end of this year.  I'm feeling like this is doable again.  I was  discouraged week before - very discouraged.

It's, however, ironic that in order to finish so much reading, I had to stay OFF the internet to accomplish this - being on a blog and reading other blogs is the whole impetus of counting books that I've read.....or was it that I started the blog just to keep count?  Yes - to keep count, but not to give myself goals and deadlines - I've never done well with deadlines, don't know why I torture myself with them.  Of course, maybe I ended up staying off the internet for so long because I was so into the books I was reading I really didn't want to stop....just kept on reading.....

*grin*
Whatever the reasoning - I did miss two weekly memes.  I didn't do the It's Monday, What Are You Reading  (omg - I won!) meme or the Teaser Tuesday meme.  I missed them, and the comments from other bloggers, but along with being obsessed with reading, I was exhausted - so exhausted that all I did from Thursday to Monday in the wee of the night was read.  Read, read, read.  I didn't check Facebook, I've been neglecting my Castleville (something I usually play obsessively) and I didn't even watch T.V. much - except for a Saturday night watching Shameless on Showtime from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Now it's back to a halfway normal schedule....

** I feel like I need to emphasize that I love shopping at The Book Depository, and I do like Amazon (just not a whole lot, especially with the whole Amazon.Fail thing that was going on with author ratings and "accidental" censorship and their lame long awaited excuses - just sayin'....).  If I'm looking for a new book, especially a new book published in the UK, or a book with a UK cover....and I can't find it in one of our Stateside bookstores, than I KNOW it's going to be available through The Book Depository with NO shipping costs.   Can't beat that.  And once in a while, you can get a good deal through Amazon - this time I bought a much needed jacket along with a used book by Elizabeth Bear (Undertow) that is never available in bookstores and was able to buy both through Amazon with no shipping.  Another good deal.  Not trying to put (especially) The Book Depository down, it's just that this time, the prices were so much better through Abe Books.

After all that Rambling - Hopefully, some reviews coming soon.  In the meantime, how about an LOL Cat?

or maybe two! :)