One Year in Review
Wow. It’s been a whole year since I started this blog. What started as a joke between my wife and I has become an endeavor which has both kept me working through the backlog of books I had acquired and made me think a little more critically about the books I read.
So, to celebrate one year of blogging I thought it would be good to look back at some of the books I’ve read, some thoughts on the blog in general, and some looking ahead to the future.
First, we’ll take a look at the numbers. At the start of this project I had 171 unread Kindle books, which anyone will agree is way too many. So how have I done in the past year? Let’s dive in!
Books Read: 33 – I’m very pleased with this number over the past 12 months. I was expecting to have about 24 read in a year’s time, so this is even better progress than I projected. It certainly went in waves…I had times where I was churning through books and put down 6 or 7 in a month, and other times where it was a slog to read. As of today I have logged 313 reading days in a row, which is by far a record for me. Prioritizing my reading has been key in how many books I finished.
Rule Three Books: 11 – This number is really great to me, as I’m choosing to focus on my newfound ability to walk away from a book instead of the number of books I purchased that were straight garbage. That’s probably not a fair statement as some of these fell into the “just not for me” category. It’s not always easy for me to walk away from a book, but I’m getting better.
Books Purchased: 0 – Now we’re talking. The whole point of this was to get me on a path to reading what I’ve purchased and not filling the backlog even further. It’s safe to say that I’ve been very good about that over the past 12 months. Full disclosure: I did convince Laura to purchase a book we both had interest in, and I wound up getting the audiobook companion to one of my books prior to a trip. So I did spend about $12, but it’s not on something new.
Books Acquired: 1 – Sometime last December I received an email from Amazon: a book I had preordered in August, and totally forgotten about, was available on waiting for me on my Kindle. I decided that even though it should count towards my total I was going to skip listing that as a book to be read…it would muddle the numbers, I’d have to add to the list, things like that. So that’s there now, but I’m fine letting it sit. It’s book six of a series I read 3 years ago, so I’ll need a refresher whether it’s now or two years from now.
Not too bad, right? In one year’s time I’ve crossed 44 books off of the list, purchased zero new books, and find myself with a great reading streak to continue building upon.
Looking at the blog as a whole, I think I’m dropping the “looking ahead” posts. They weren’t really functioning in the way I thought they would and I’ve found them to be more of a chore than anything else. I might toy around with a new format where I give a monthly update and talk a little about the next few books and any other thoughts I have instead of a look ahead at each book.
If I was to set a goal for the next year of this project, it would be to maintain this pace as much as I can…but I totally expect to fail in that goal. My wife and I are expecting our first child in a few weeks and I’m under no illusion that I’m going to have the same luxury of time that I enjoy now. And even if I do find myself with some time I might have a brain that is incapable of reading. So time will tell on that.
I’m also coming to the end of the books I’m able to read without acquiring other books – there are trilogies where I own book one only, and things like that. If I find myself enjoying the books enough to keep going with the series I will want to do so immediately. So that may see a little shift in the way things progress.
Even if the arrival of our child led to the demise of my reading, I am quite pleased with how the past year has gone. It’s easy to see the number dwindling to under 100 by the end of next year, which would be a great undertaking in of itself.
Finally, a thank you to those who have read along with this journey. I hope it’s been a little bit entertaining and that perhaps you’ve found some insight in what to read and what to avoid. Here’s to the next twelve months!