July Reading

Well, I got through most of the books I wanted to this month.  I really would have liked to have finished the Semi Charmed Book Challenge.  I have two books left to read for that one ... well, really just one and a half as I'm in the middle of one of those.  So here's what I read this month.  I managed to fit everything into the requirements of the book challenge, so I'm including the categories and points.  (In case you're wondering about the oddly stacked pile of books, they are always pictured in the order I read them - bottom book first, top book most recent.)

5 points: Freebie! Carly's Voice by Arthur Fleischmann (391 pgs) (This one is about autism and is a must read for anyone working with handicapped people. Very eye opening.
5:  Read a book that is less than 150 pages long. Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Gardner (79 pgs)
10: Read a book with a color in the title. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (270 pgs)
10: Read a book that is not the first in its series. Insurgent by Veronica Roth (525 pgs) (Divergent series)
15: Read a book it seems everyone but you has read! The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffeneggar (546 pgs)
15: Read a banned book. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (371 pgs)  (This was our library evening book club's choice for July)
20: Read a book written by a celebrity. The Notes: Ronald Reagan's Private Collection of Stories and Wisdom by Ronald Reagan (299 pgs)
20: Read a book that takes place in a state you have never been in. A Thorn in my Pocket by Eustacia Cutler (224 pgs) (Massachusetts/New York) (this is another autism book - the author is Temple Grandin's mother.  Temple is very well known in the autism circle.)
25: Read a book that is at least 400 pages long. Divergent by Veronica Roth (487 pgs) (I never would have read this had it not been the July choice for one of my online book clubs.  I was surprised I liked it so well I read the second book in the series and plan to read the third when it comes out in October.)
25: Read a book with a main character who shares your first name. (Judi - character was Judith) To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal (436 pgs)

TOTAL POINTS:150

I still need to read a nonfiction book that is not a memoir for 20 points (I'm in the middle of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, which also is the book choice for my library daytime book club). And I need to read a book written by an author born in the same year as me for 30 points.  I chose HHhH by Laurent Binet.  I should have read it before Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and I would have had 11 books read in July instead of 10.  But the book club meets next Tuesday and I wanted to be sure I had finished the book (even though I probably won't be able to attend the meeting this month).

I've done so much reading I've had to move on to the next Reading Journal.  My 20 year old daughter thinks I'm crazy to get the same exact design, but I like uniformity on a bookshelf, and I'm thinking I'll continue to journal my reading from now on.  I might just stick with this book for good.  I will either label them with a sticker or use a gold marker right on the spine - something like 2013-1 and 2013-2 and so on.

So my stats for July are as follows:
10 Books Read
14 1/2 inches
3,628 pages

Totals for the year:
52 books read
63 3/4 inches
15,673 pages

That means that I have completed my goal for the entire year.  My goal was to read one book a week = 52 books.  I am currently reading book number 53!!  Now I'm going to see if I can possibly double that and finish 104 by the end of the year.  Should be a challenge, but fun to try.  I'm a little past halfway in the year so I'll have to kick it up a notch.  I'm going to have to read 10 books a month (which seems unlikely for every single month, but we'll see).  I read a book last year about a woman who committed to read a book every single day of the year.  She must have completely ignored her family during that time.  And she only read shorter books.  I found that one of the most difficult categories to find books for was the "under 150 pages" category.  None of the ones I saw sounded very interesting, and I hated the one I read.