50 Books in 2005

I am a little late to the game, but I am starting this blog to officially jump in on the 50 Books Challenge. I gather this challenge has been around in one form or another for a few years, but I just found it, and am declaring myself a participant in 2005.

I did a similar challenge (on my own) last year, and found that it was fairly easy to keep on track, as long as you intersperse some fluffy books with the more difficult ones. Maybe that’s not very “challenging,” but it’s the way I prefer to read, anyway, so I would probably go that route regardless.

So, as it’s January 24 already, I am getting a bit of a late start, but I will just list the books I’ve read the past couple of weeks, to kick things off:

1. The Virgin's Lover, by Philippa Gregory
2. Otherwise Engaged, by Suzanne Finnamore
3. The 3rd and 4th Gossip Girl books, by Cecily von Ziegesar (we'll count those as one item, shall we?)
4. Getting Over Jack Wagner, by Elise Juska

Now, this is starting off as a very fluffy list, I see, but I’m not going to be too hard on myself, as this month included vacation time, the death of my grandmother, and other stressful situations - all occasions which made me crave easy, enjoyable reading. Nothing too taxing for me in January, please.

Well, now. Already I see two interesting things that may come of this challenge: First off, it will be interesting to see how my reading choices reflect what is happening in my life at a given time. And second, why do I feel the need to be “hard on myself” or justify my choice of less-challenging reading? Who am I justifying myself to, anyway? This challenge is just supposed to be for me, right? Am I feeling guilty because I have a MA in literature, yet I choose to read children's books now and chicklit? Am I worried about impressing the random person who stumbles across this blog? Or am I just naturally critical of myself and every. single. choice. I make? Now we're talking.

Anyway, we’ll start with those, the first four on my list. Am currently reading another young adult book and will post about that when I’m finished. Things are stressful in my life these days, so it’s nice to turn off the phone and sit on the couch with my dog and read an easy, silly book.

Seems I’ll be posting a little about my life, as well as the books, whether I/you (who?) like it or not.