2014 Reading Challenge: June

We are officially halfway through the year—and my challenge! Time for a reassessment of my goals. What is working for me? What is not? Are there any goals I need to modify so that I can make the most of of the rest of the year? Let’s take these one by one…

Goal 1: Read 100 Books

I am way behind on this—about 20 books behind! I had assumed I would make it up over the summer, when I am working less, but making up 20 books is a bit of a daunting task. I am going to let this one stand for now, but I am reserving the right to re-examine it come September.

Goal 2: Do a Thematic Reading Project

I like the thematic reading project idea, but I think a year is too long. I am very tired of the Jewish-themed books. I actually did read one in June—a memoir whose twin main characters just happened to be Jewish—so technically I have only missed one month. But the Jewish-themed genre seems heavily dominated by Holocaust books and it just got too much for me.

So I am going to tweak this one and instead of aiming for a number of months in a row, I’ll aim for a number of books in a row instead. I’m still trying to get through a backlog of purchased books, so I am going to make my next theme ‘Star Trek novelisations’ and aim to read six. After I have done that, I can either keep going, or I can pick a new thematic series.

Goal 3: Read a Book of Daily Essays

Still plowing through my Telushkin, and it’s still going well. But I have missed the odd day or two because I am so enmeshed in the ecosystem now that my e-ink reader is a Kindle too that I am forgetting to go into iBooks, where this one is. So I am going to have to take an hour or so and transfer all my notes and highlights into Evernote, then move this one onto the Kindle app.

Goal 4: Read More French

I am going to have to let this one go. I have yet to have a single month where I have been successful with it, so maybe I am just not quite ready for this one. I do  have a website I visit daily which reviews a different verb of the day; since the verb conjugations are where my lack of French reading confidence lies, I have been hoping that a little daily practice at it will slowly build my confidence. So that will be my new goal—to visit the verb of the day site and read the lesson every day. Maybe after I spend the rest of the year working on that, I will be ready to try books again next year!

Goal 5: Spend Less Money

This month, I finally broke my no-buy challenge and bought a Kindle book. It was not a deal of the day. It was a full-price book, and it was one I had been wanting to read for awhile and had not found via my usual channels.

I have no regrets. I enjoyed the book immensely, and it did not ignite a buying frenzy either. I have learned the lesson I intended to learn with the less-money challenge. I still am trying to moderate my spending, especially since I still do have past unread purchases. But if I want something, it is okay to get it too!

So, that my my June epiphany. How did everyone else’s reading month go?