read one book a month for 12 months

November: How To Make A Journal Of Your Life – Daniel Price -> a re-read, but I was in need of a bit of journaling inspiration :) Love this little book. Also re-read (well not really read because it’s mostly pictures!) The 1000 Journals Project by Someguy and spent some time going through Gwen Deihn’s The Decorated Page and The Decorated Journal. A bit of a journaling month.

December: Your Best Year Yet – Jinny Ditzler -> another re-read as I worked through an overhaul of my goals list for the new year. This is the most awesome book for goal setting, highly reccommended to anyone working on their 2009 goals list.

January: Thinkertoys – Michael Michalko -> coming up with great ideas, changing the way you think. A very, very interesting read.

Actually read quite a few books during this period, here’s a few of them by month:

July: Star Struck – Val McDermid and The Wild Reel – Paul Brandon (awesome book, highly recommended, particularly if you live in Brisbane and like stories about the Faerie world) and The Forgetting of Wisdom – Paul McDermott

August: Up The Duff – Kaz Cooke

September: Bones To Ashes – Kathy Reichs

October: Kid Wrangling – Kaz Cooke

Picking this goal up again after a huge break …

In February I read The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. I have to admit it didn’t really strike a chord with me. Not one I’d recommend to anyone else.

In March I read Made To Stick by Chip & Dan Heath. An awesome book that gets you thinking about marketing and concepts that could be applied in every day life.

In April I read Juliet Marillier’s The Dark Mirror and Blade of Fortriu. A nice escape into a fantasy world.

My books for May were the first two in the Aldabreshin Compass by Juliet E.Mckenna – Southern Fire and Northern Storm. More fantasy escapes.

My book for June was the second One Book One Brisbane anthology, plus another about women writers in Brisbane. Some locally orientated reading!

I’m finding that my reading has really increased in recent months as I’m putting in 3 hours a day on public transport and using my library membership a lot more.

Okay, my 52 books in 52 weeks goal … which actually turned into 52 books in 104 weeks … is now complete. With my average reading rate being a book a fortnight, this goal should be a lot easier to complete :) It’s not a stretch goal, it’s more for motivation to keep me reading. I find that if I go too long without that bit of escapism a good novel gives my stress levels go up.

For April, I’ve well and truly hit the goal by reading so many of the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter books (I can’t help it, they’re very hard to put down!). Will have to start thinking about what I’ll read for May.

Well I managed to finish all the ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy this month. WOW. What a way to finish this goal.

If you haven’t read them I definitely recommend them – Fantasy epic (compared to Lord of the Rings) with science and it’s thought provoking (but only as deeply as you want to go).

Make that 17 books in 12 months.

I also have 28 days to go until the 12 months are up and think there may be another book or two in there – I have quite a lot of time to read at the moment.

I really enjoyed this goal.

This was recommended by my brother. Not all of his recommended reads are to my taste but I couldn’t put this down and finished it in a week. The chapters are short enough that I was able to read one on each journey to and from work. Guess it would also work for reading at bedtime.

Have pulled book 2 out of the box to start tomorrow and am looking eagerly at book 3 wondering what delights are in there and how quickly I can finish them all. I bet once I get there I will wish I had taken more time over them.

This book is a mixture of fantasy (without unicorns and happy fairy tales) and sci fi (alternate worlds/dimensions/possibilities and inventions/experiments). It’s suitable for both children and adults and I heard whilst I was reading it that it’s being made into a film. I look forward to it but can’t imagine how faithful they can be to the story even with cgi.

Why are so many UK books renamed when they enter the US market?
It really annoys me.

I wanted to start with the first Kay Scarpetta novel from Patricia Cornwell and it was a total page turner.

I’m looking forward to number 2. I’m going to read them in order (I bought all the Kay Scarpetta novels for hubby a couple of years ago as he enjoyed a couple I’d got).

This is Carl Hiaasen’s first novel and isn’t as good as some of his later novels but is still a good gripping read that makes you want to laugh out loud. He has a certain way with words and can create bizarre situations and twists.

Interesting story about drug dealing, money laundering and fascinating people. True I hope but he has admitted to telling porkies in the past.