Fall into Reading 2010Status Report

About five weeks into the challenge, I've read five of the 26 books on my Fall into Reading list:

• Any Bitter Thing by Monica Wood


• The Declaration by Gemma Malley


• Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins


• I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak


• The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

Host Katrina has posted some reading questions for challenge participants to answer. I offer a few of my thoughts:

What do you think is the biggest obstacle to your reading? What prevents you from reading as much as you’d like?

"Not enough time" is certainly the simple, though not complete answer. Time is indeed a significant factor, as illustrated by the fact that I read 30 books this year from January through June (an average of five per month) but since completing a five-year work commitment on June 30, I've read another 43 books (almost 11 per month). I know that I could read more, however, if I spent less time on Facebook. I also struggle with what I call "the book blogger's dilemma" - that is, finding the proper balance between reading books and blogging about them.

Do you eat/drink while reading? If so, do you have some favorite reading snacks?

Although I don't always eat or drink while reading, I do enjoy combining food and books. My favorite reading snack is microwave popcorn. I also enjoy reading while I eat a meal. In the last several months - since I have more time mid-day than I used to have - I've been having lunch every few weeks at Cafe Zupas or Paradise Bakery with a book.

When you read a book, do you read everything? In other words, do you read the dedication, the acknowledgements, the foreword, the afterword, the prologue, the epilogue, the appendix, etc.? Or do you just read the "meat" of the book? Or is your approach somewhere in between?

I read everything! Two recent reads with lots of "extras" were the non-fiction young adult history Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice and the novel The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane.