It Is... Unfinished


Confession time, kids! (And I hope I don't disappoint my number one fan here.) Brace yourselves for it...

I only completed the reading of 3 books in 2006.



Shocking, I know. Although I own more books than most people think necessary, consider myself fairly well-read--and ironically started a monthly book club in 2006--it was the worst reading year I've had in adult memory. Consider the logs I've kept faithfully on Listology.com. Even in good years, the numbers weren't fabulous, but at least halfway respectable:
1995 - 13
1996 - 7
1997 - 12
1998 - 6
1999 - 17
2000 -10
2001 - 12
2002 - 29
2003 - 36 (I was unemployed!)
2004 - 12
2005 - 16

So even by my standards, reading 3 books is--if you'll pardon my language--piss-poor. However, astute readers might also have noted a list on my Listology called "failed to finish: a lesson in procrastination" which highlights one of my major flaws: in my father's words, "lack of follow-through." You see, it wasn't because I wasn't reading that I didn't finish that many. On the contrary, I just wasn't reading the same book. Here's a small sampling of the books I started to read last year:

On Beauty - Zadie Smith
The Master - Colm Toibin
Saint Morrissey - Mark Simpson
Freakonomics - Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser
Generation Debt - Anya Kamenetz
My Fundamentalist Education - Christine Rosen
Waking Up Together - Ellen & Charles Birx

The first two I actually surrendered on purpose, but the others I still consider "in progress." You get my point, though. It's a problem. And so I'm announcing that in 2007, one of my resolutions is to read only one book at a time--and finish more than 10. Since I've got a jump-start on so many already, it should be easy!

Posted: Fri - January 5, 2007 at 09:59 PM           |

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