So remember how I went on a book buying ban in March and everything went swimmingly? And then I bought quite a few books right after it but felt guilt free about the whole thing? Well in the last week I somehow managed to obtain 18 new books. Which is a lot and now I feel guilty and stressed about it. For awhile I've been trying to read thicker books in order to get another shelf of "read" books on my shelves but the length of most of these books is daunting for me. I've also been in a reading funk, which isn't helping. On Friday I picked up Juliet, Naked
because it was short and I knew I'd be pulled in right away since I love Nick Hornby. I ended up finishing the book yesterday and that is when I realized it. Short books.
After I finished Juliet, Naked I went to my bookshelves and pulled all the books that looked to be about 200 pages or less. I found eighteen books which comes out to about 2500 pages total. My goal is to read about 80 pages a day and finish all of these books in the month of May. 80 pages a day, that is totally doable. And in one month I can clear off a huge chunk of books sitting on my shelves. Another great thing about this is the selection of books. It's pretty evenly spread between books I've just gotten and books I've had for quite awhile. It's also pretty even between fiction and nonfiction, classic versus modern and so on.
Short books are great because they don't seem like a huge commitment. If I get fifty pages into a short book and I don't like it then I can put it down knowing I read at least a quarter of the book. Amazingly, I often put off reading short books because I think they'll be better for a week when I have a lot going on or when I'm doing a readathon. Short books are great for those things--but I never try to read them when I have a lot going on. I also buy short books a lot because I think there is no way I won't read it if it's only 150 pages. Obviously all of these assumptions are a little sketchy since ten percent of the books I own are of the short variety.
Anyone want to join me?
Also, I'd like to take this opportunity to give Briana at The Book Pixie a shout-out. She sent me Capote in Kansas during April for Random Acts of Kindness. I'm looking forward to reading it around Halloween as it is a ghost story! If you haven't checked out Random Acts of Kindness you definitely should. I've really enjoyed sending others books and getting books in return.
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