Keeping Busy in July

Mrs S at Blue Archipelago is hosting a "Book Blowout" for July. Basically, the point is to read as many books as possible in July! Each participant sets a goal for July's reading and then posts a list of the books read by August 7. I think I can do this! (The full details here.)

Before I set my goal, I want to think through what I've got going in July. I have just started The Host by Stephenie Meyer (which is the July pick for Becky's Online Reading Group). The Book Buddies read for July is Jim the Boy, which I have on hold at the library. In my IRL book club, we're reading Connie Willis' Doomsday Book; this is a book I've already read - and loved - but I'm hoping to re-read it before our meeting on July 29. My church women's reading group has David McCullough's 1776 on the schedule; I have the abridged audio book, and I'm trying to decide if "abridged" is enough. The Goodreads YA Book Club pick for July is Coraline by Neil Gaiman; I've got that on hold at the library too.

In addition to those specific titles, I need to make some progress on the many challenges in which I am behind - as well as on my overall goal to read 104 books this year. (As of today I've read 41 - three of which I've not yet reviewed. Obviously, that's well off the two-books-a-week pace I'd hoped to have this year. If I'm going to actually achieve 104 books, I'm going to have to read nearly two-and-a-half books a week for the rest of the year.)

Work will be quite busy this month - especially this coming week - but I am going to be on vacation later in the month. I'm hoping that vacation time will equal reading time - at least some - although since this is a road trip and I can't read in a car without getting sick, there will likely be some days that I won't read much (unless I do some listening while sitting in the car).

I do wish I read more quickly than I do. (I think my daughters read almost twice as fast!) I also spend more time than I should playing games on the computer. One other thing I'm hoping to do this month is make some progress with my Stargate: SG-1 DVD viewing.

So, after all is said and done, I'm going to set a goal of eight books for July!