2012 Reading Challenge

I LOVE to read. Our kids love to read. I love to read to our kids. When I've gone a week or so without a novel in hand...I feel like I get a bit cranky. Thankfully we have frequent trips to the library so this hasn't been too much of an issue lately. I usually try to get just one or two books for myself, and the kids and I pick out at least a couple dozen for them. We have a special shelf just for library books and these are the ones they usually pick when we have our regular reading times (before rest/nap time, and before bed). I love to see the kids grab books on their own and sit down on the couch to 'read', and I really love to just sit down with one or both kids at various times throughout the day and read with them (especially during daycare hours; it's a great way to get one-on-one time with my kiddos). I do most of my reading in the morning before I get out of bed (if I wake up early enough), or at night before I go to bed. Then I try to fit in some reading when the kids are resting, after cleaning up from dinner if my hubby is home to play with the kids, or whenever else I can.

On a blog I recently started following, I read about a book challenge that Nicole @ Table For Four had completed. She has inspired me to set my own reading goal for 2012.

I found a blog called "A Novel Challenge" and started searching for different types of challenges, but was soon overwhelmed with all of the ideas. Most were challenges that you could sign up for, and link back to in your own posts, and on and on. If I didn't have so much on my plate, I may have chosen to go that route, but I do, thus I will just make this reading challenge between me, and you, through a blog post I can update. I really did like some of the challenge ideas though, so I will incorporate those into my own challenge. Some of these include: Finishing the Series Reading Challenge; The 2012 "Books I started but didn't finish" Reading Challenge; and The Jodi Picoult Project.

I'm going to create a separate post to list some of the books I plan to read during 2012. Sometimes I am searching the library shelves for a particular author, other times I find something that sounds interesting and go with it (and have discovered many authors new to me that I love!). So, I really don't know what will end up in front of me at times.

My goal for 2012 will be 30 books. I really don't know how many books I read in 2011 (wish I would have been keeping track) so I wasn't quite sure where to set my goal. I figure with 30, as long as I read a book every 2 weeks - with a few extras tossed in, then I should have a good chance at reaching my goal.

Now I just need to finish the book I started in the last week of 2011 (Jodi Picoult's "Nineteen Minutes") so I can get started on my 2012 goal! I have 6 books waiting in my library bag...