It looks like my reading challenge efforts are more than a little weak this year. If you take a gander at the list of them to the right, there’s two I’ve done nothing toward. And the others aren’t get much better.
In one — a challenge I came up with — I’ve only read one book (although I am reading another largely on my Blackberry during occasional down moments). When it comes to the Notable Books Challenge, I’ve only read two books. (Of course, that effort is hurt somewhat by the fact that I read more than a dozen of the eligible 2009 books before the various lists were announced but they don’t count toward my goal.) And while the Random Reading Challenge looks fairly good, it ends July 1 and only one-third of the books I’ve read toward it were this year.
I don’t have any good reasons excuses for my lack of diligence. It just seems that little of what I’m reading fits within the challenges. It also doesn’t help that the four or five books I’ve bought in the last couple weeks, the review copies I’ve received and the library holds probably aren’t going to fit either. In light of the shortcomings, don’t be surprised if a couple of the challenges disappear from the sidebar.
A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.
Samuel Johnson, quoted in
Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson
