Read 23 books in one year

At long last, I have read 23 books in less than a year and completed this goal! You can read the details and reviews of each book on my blog, Random Fodder.

1. A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut
2. Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife by Sam Savage
3. Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Financially Responsible Children by Neale S. Godfrey
4. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
5. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
6. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
7. The Children of Men by P.D. James
8. The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
9. Speed Cleaning 101: Cut Your Cleaning Time in Half! by Laura Dellutri
10. Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
11. The Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd & John Mitchinson
12. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
13. Girl Boy Etc. by Michael Weinreb
14. Mort by Terry Pratchett
15. Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
16. Company: A Novel by Max Barry
17. Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett
18. Jennifer Government by Max Barry
19. Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
20. Soul Music by Terry Pratchett
21. Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman
22. The View from the Seventh Layer by Kevin Brockmeier
23. How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt & Live Prosperously by Jerrold Mundis

This turned out to be an awesome goal to have (and complete) because it really has gotten me back into reading.

For once, I’m altering a goal to make it “tougher” instead of easier. Instead of taking the entire 3 years to read the 23 books, I now believe that I can read at least 23 books within a year. After that, I will adopt the Readers’ Challenge next goal (33 more books) but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

November 2007

I got off to a very quick start in my first month — 5 books — but then I picked up the guidelines and had to ask that two of my books be removed from my list. So now, I’m at 3 books, which is still ahead of schedule to finish 23 books in under a year.

1. A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut
2. Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife by Sam Savage
3. Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Financially Responsible Children by Neale S. Godfrey

• Families That Play Together Stay Together! by Cameron and Donna Partow (I had to remove this from my list because guidelines state that you cannot count books that you own — only books you borrow from the library!)
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (I had to have this book removed from my reading list because it is not categorized as an Adult or Young Adult book.)

You can read more on my progress and what I thought of each book over at my blog, Random Fodder: 23 Books: Month 1

I just found out that my library has a program to read 23 books in three years. That’s a book every month-and-a-half, which is quite a bit more reading than I’m accustomed to. I’m more of an audiobook guy myself. Maybe I’ll get it done, and possibly I won’t, but we’ll see!