Mid-Year Musings on This Years Goals

Now that the year is half-over I thought I'd go back for a looksy at the goals I set up for myself at the beginning of the year.  I've kept these vaguely in my mind but have not bothered to re-examine the list, keeping goal #8 (Go With the Flow) every present in my mind.  However, let's get serious for a minute and see how I'm doing.  First of all I started off by making this statement

This is not a goal but a pledge:
I will not start any new series this year, unless it is a 2012 release by an author I keep up to date with.

Surprisingly, I have done well with this.  The only new series I've started are virtually all graphic novels or manga and I didn't really have those in mind when I wrote the above statement.  I had intended to allow them, anyway.  The only series I started was Cinder by Marrisa Meyers and that was by accident because I didn't know it was the first in a series when I requested it, but since it's been one of my favourite books this year this is perfectly more than acceptable.  And has not been as hard as I thought it would be, I just have to skip over books that say book 1 very quickly without stopping to read the synopsis, no matter what.

Goal #1 was to finish Kenneth Oppel's backlist, which I have failed miserably at.  I have not even read his latest book and he has a new one coming out soon.  This really is deplorable, because I love the author and I don't have that many books left to read by him, with most of the backlist being picture books and an easy reader!  I think I'll remedy this right now by going to the library website and requesting all his picture books they carry (4 books put on reserve).  This will also help me complete the Picture Book Challenge and get me on track to finishing Oppel.

Goal #2 was to finish off series I've already started, and to work on First Second's backlist.  Finished series are: MAOH: Juvenile Remix; Good vs. Evil by Stone Arch Press, Rick Geary's 21st Century (My library has the last one on order and I'm first in line for it) and I'm up-to-date with the Fables series, just waiting for the pre-ordered books to be published and arrive. I have not had a chance to read any of 1st2nd backlist it's just enough to keep up with the arcs I'm reading.

Goal #3 was to continue my Reading Around the World project and to finish the two Canadian provinces I have left.  I've made a bit of progress on States and Countries but still have not read the two provinces, even though I have one book right here on my table.  I'm going to make it my next read aloud to my son, since he likes the author, and that will take care of this goal.

Goal #4 concerned my Stephen King project and I am half-way to completing it.  I started the year off with The Dead Zone and I've been thinking recently about when I should start reading Firestarter and I'm thinking I will read it for RIP in October, if I don't get to it earlier.

Goal #5 so far is continuing to be the flop that it is every year!  Concerning my Newbery Challenge, I have read this years winner but not a single other backlist title.  I have The Wheel on the School in my read aloud pile.  I love this book, so let's see if I can get to it this year.

Goal #6 was to work on my personal Random Reading Bookshelf Challenge and make some progress.  So far I've read 3 more books and given away 1 of those.

This is Goal #7:

"7) I started two non-fiction chunksters in 2011: "Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul by Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska" and "Catechism of the Catholic Church". Quite heavy reading in these tomes, though I'll say Saint Faustina's diary is easy going, though spiritually exhausting. The Catechism is something I expect to be reading my whole life, just like the Bible, so I'm in no hurry for this once through from beginning to end, but would like to make some decent headway this year. I am currently on page 61/756. I would like to set the "Diary" as my chunkster of the year to finish and will read at least a few pages each evening so that I can complete it by the end of 2012. It has 692 pages of small print."

Not much progress, Divine Mercy is a slow read.  A book one picks up every now and then when they have peace and quiet and gets lost in for an hour or so.  I will not finish it this year.  I have not read any more of the Catechism but now that I realise I won't finish St. Faustina I think I may work on alternating the books and take a couple of years reading them.

Goal #8!  The best goal just got better!
8) And finally! This year I'm going to try and go with the flow. This is what is missing in my reading. If a book makes me want to read something else I will go down that rabbit trail and not let any of the above "goals" get in my way. Sometimes one book leads to another, leads to another, leads to another (whether they be by the same author, about the same topic, mentioned in the book, whatever) and it is fun to let yourself get carried down these trails and I've been writing the books down as tbr but not getting to them lately. So goal number 8 is to throw caution to the wind and give myself permission to chill and ignore the previous 7 goals if I 'wanna'! So there!

I've been following this goal with glee.  I've been and continue to read the works of Daniel Woodrell, have said yes to some author/publicist/book tour arc requests just because the topics tickled me, have read some graphic novels out of the blue because they were recommended or just caught my eye and am reading the "Boxcar Children" series for fun.  Another thing I plan to do because of this goal is to set July aside for ebook reading.  I'm going to ignore all the arcs and my own shelves for 31 days and read nothing but books from my ereader.  We travel a bit in July and it will be so much better carry my Kindle around with me than a stack of books.

Not exactly following my goals , but not doing too shabby either!