In 2011 and 2012 I set a goal of reading 52 books.
That doesn’t really sound like many, just one a week, but with work and writing I thought it was a reasonable, achievable aspiration.
I didn’t have any problem last year. Maybe I read more quickly or maybe I read shorter books because I surpassed my goal and read 57 books.
Earlier this week I realized I was behind for 2012. And I was stuck in my 48th book, “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer.
Really stuck.
It’s not that I didn’t like the book, it was just taking me forever to get through it.
It also didn’t help that the newest novel by one of my favorite authors, “Sweet Tooth” by Ian MacEwan, was sitting on the shelf waiting for me, staring at me, calling my name.
I almost gave up on “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”. I had seen the movie so why finish it at all?
But I had put so much time into it that I thought it would be a waste to stop and have to start book number 48 all over again.
I plowed on and, after reading “Sweet Tooth”, cruised through a couple of quick reads I received for Christmas (“Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores” by Jen Campbell and “Fake Liar Cheat” by Tod Goldberg).
Goodreads now tells me that I’m “on track.” I was going to post a picture of it here, but couldn’t figure out how to save a screen print.
I’d try to find the instructions online but I’m only fifty pages into book number 52, so I better go read.
One Thousand Words Project 
Impressive goal to achieve – haven’t a clue how many books I’ve read this year but Sweet Tooth awaits me – definitely one of my all time favourite authors. Maybe I’ll keep a running total in 2013 with scores out of 10? Btw, have you read any Jon McGregor? if not, start with If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things = inspirational writing!