Time to Alter the Plan

You may or may not know this about me, but I like to have a plan. I love goals. I love things I can check off. I have a planner. And notebooks. And notepads in my purse. My obsession with lists has only deepened as I get older.

During the past month my thoughts on "monthly reading plan" evolved. I don't like the feeling I get when I don't check everything off the list. I am going to try a shelf that is "books to choose from" - a little more variety, a little less pressure by expanding the choices. 

I have goals for my reading. Other than reading 52 books during the year, I try not to make them numerical goals. I do not like "read one of these every month". I am trying to increase variety in my reading and giving myself room to find something that suits the mood today fits that goal. That's why I am usually reading multiple books. I have at least 2 books that need to be read during the month - book club and the online book challenge. The rest should be up to me.

So, how to comfortably blend goals and mood? What is going to live on my shelf? One of my goals involves reading the classics. I have many under my belt but mostly from high school and college. I haven't pushed myself to read those that slipped past me but have felt a pull to grow my knowledge in that area. I don't plan to torture myself - if I open one and really can't see myself on the journey, I will put it aside. So, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (I know, right?) found its way to the shelf.

What else is living there? The books I pulled out so far in 2024 but haven't read yet are still hanging out on the shelf:

  • Maame by Jessica George
  • I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
  • The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

I have upcoming book club selections:

  • Know My Name by Chanel Miller
  • The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg
  • Swan Light by Phoebe Rowe

And online challenge picks:

  • (January) "L" in the title - Lone Women by Victor LaValle
  • (March) apostrophe in the title - Miller'sValley by Anna Quindlen

Fiction I am itching to read:
  • Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett
  • Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Papers by Harriet Scott Chessman
  • American Mermaid by Julia Langbein
Middle grades fiction I might need to wrap in the cocoon of:
  • From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankenweiler and The View from Saturday         by E.L. Konigsburg
  • The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
Non-fiction, personal growth, reading and writing - usually done as a "slow but steady" read, or a little here, a little there:
  • Reading People by Ann Bogel
  • Wintering by Katherine May
  • Year of |Yes by Shonda Rimes
  • Love Lives Here by Amanda Jette Knox
Plus I always have a Spenser book (Now and Then) and a book of poetry. Right now I am working through Abby Jacobson's second volume of poetry, Petals of Unspoken Verses. I have a Kindle book so I can read with that or on my phone. Right now it is A Thousand Recipes for Revenge by Beth Cato. Oh, and an audio book for when that is right. That would be Alka Joshi's The Henna Artist.

It gives me a multitude of choices for whatever mood I am in. And isn't that what a love of reading is all about?

~ I am never lonely or alone. There's always a friend between the pages.

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