Sound the alarm bells: 1 in 4 adults didn't read a book last year

Got the message from Bookshelves of Doom with a link to the WaPo article. The takeaway?

One in four adults read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday.

I know that this is framed in an alarming way, but...I'm not entirely sure why this is a big deal. And I love to read!  I'm trying to read 150 books this year!  Why am I not lamenting the sad state of reading affairs in America? This part from the article:

"I just get sleepy when I read," said Richard Bustos of Dallas, a habit with which millions of Americans can doubtless identify. Bustos, a 34-year-old project manager for a telecommunications company, said he had not read any books in the last year and would rather spend time in his backyard pool.

Honestly, dude, I can relate. In college, I used to start studying in the afternoon for the express purpose of being asleep for an afternoon nap in the next 30 minutes. Lets face it! Americans have other things going on. And that guy loves to be in the pool! Shouldn't I be out getting more exercise, rather reading 150 books? In another article, I could say something like:

"I just don't like to go outside very much. I'd rather stay inside, read, watch television... Besides, its been so hot lately," she said, adding that occasionally she does ten minute yoga routines in the morning.

We're all fuckups in some way according to the media. 


Besides, television has gotten super intense and complicated. Certain programs (The Wire, Mad Men) are like intellectual pursuits. I'm willing to give non-readers a break. Your life is complicated, I'm sure that you're doing what you can, and I'm not here to give you a guilt trip.

150 Book Challenge: Mini Update

Oh man, so I'm totally failing on reading 13 books this month (only 10!), but due to being so far ahead other months, I'm still super ahead on the challenge.

All that being said: I really, really liked How To Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu. I'm really, really looking forward to reading his short story collection.

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From George R. R. Martin's A Dance With Dragons

‎"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads only lives one." 


- George R. R. Martin

Being an Adult

Its the new thing to proclaim your childishness for all the internet to see. "I suck at being an adult! I'm a child in an adult body! I saw Toy Story Three!" The best of these is Hyperbole and a Half's "This is Why I'll Never Be An Adult"  The most recent of which that I've read is this one from Hello Giggles.

But even though I spend most of my time watching television, I'm unable to manage time effectively, I ate frozen cheesecake for dinner last night because it was so hot.... I have to admit that I've started that transition, the adult transition. I definitely am no longer in college.

I'm pretty sure that other people's badges of adulthood are different, but mine are:

1. I'm a wizard at laundry. Seriously. I got bike grease out of my boyfriend's short, I got cat blood out of his shirt a few months ago. And I know that its not me performing the magic, its oxyclean, but not looking at a grease stain and saying, "Fuck it. I'm throwing you away rather than dealing with you," is a sort of triumph.
2. I make food that isn't macaroni and cheese. 
3. Related -- I eat a vegetable that isn't a potato once a day and drink tea without any sweetener.
4. I've kept a cat alive for four years now. I remember when he was still a kitten, and I said to someone that I had a cat. Their reply, "In your college apartment??? Is it ALIVE?" Why, yes. I feed it and take it to the vet and everything.

5. I have motherfucking goals. Seriously. Like, the 150 Book Challenge for the year. A new one I'm toying with is trying to get to 100,000 total tracks on my last.fm account by the end of the year. Doesn't matter that its an inconsequential goal. Still counts.
6. I'm also keeping plants alive. Outside, or whatever, but in the current heat wave, that is a miracle and it shall be counted as no less.

I feel like its become the new cool thing, the "Oh, I'm not an adult because I wear flip flops in the snow." (True story: I do.) Just like being awkward became cool 5 years ago... which still boggles my mind. Do you know the feeling of being awkward? It is the exact opposite of coolness. I feel sick and want to sink into the pages of Harry Potter where time-turners exist so I can turn the clocks back, or at best, obliviate with a a flick of my wand so that NO ONE REMEMBERS THE WEIRD THING I SAID OR DID. The essence of not being cool.

So I'm owning to being an adult. There are worse things. 

After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn

I loved After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn. I loved loved loved loved loved it. In fact, the day after I read it, I wanted to read it again. This is technically against the rules of my 150 book challenge. While I'm allowed to reread books, it should be books that I finished before the beginning of this year.

(I cheated. I reread it today.)

My love of this book falls into two major categories:

1. A Celia character who doesn't suck. As a person named Celia, there are few other Celia's out there, in literature or otherwise. I remember there being a Celia in Under the Lilacs by Louisa May Alcott, and not being offended by her, but not impressed either. Celia Hodes, on Weeds, is the worst Celia ever. Seriously. I can't watch Weeds because she is the worst person on that show.

Celia in After the Golden Age is pretty awesome. She's exactly my age (25!), rides the city bus (me too!), and is a bit of a work-a-holic. As one of the few "super-heroes" in the book, she's got a lot to prove, and she goes ahead and proves it. She's pretty bad ass in a runaway bus scene.

2. I'm a sucker for the love story. Seriously. Carrie Vaughn did something that seems pretty hard. She had the protagonist fall in love with a telepath and made it sweet. That seems so impossible. But it isn't played creepily, and it just works. I love every second of it, and even though I saw it coming, I loved re-reading it, paying close attention to their interactions and savoring it.

Since then, I've been on the lookout for Carrie Vaughn books. I just read Steel and it was good too. But the DC public library doesn't really have a lot of her books (almost none of a series that she writes). Oh well, I'll just have to keep watch! I also subscribed to her blog and am really enjoying that too.

Note: I borrowed After the Golden Age from the public library. I am an Amazon Associate, which means if you click a link to there from here, I'll receive a portion of the purchase price at no additional cost to you

Meeting Reading and Book Goals [150 Book Challenge]

So I'm reading 150 books this year. I've been doing pretty well so far, reading an average of 13 books per month so far.

Obviously, having a a huge goal like this is daunting. And reading goals are pretty common for people. (See Goodreads group) Having a plan can work wonders. Like in my original blog post, I had broken down how many books in a month I needed to read (12.5) or in how many days I need to finish a book (approximately 2.4).

Still, sometimes I get tripped up. Last year, it took me three weeks to read Stephen King's IT. I had just gotten into a rut, never wanting to pick it up on the way to work....instead vegging out to the iPod.

1. Be prepared to mess up


I messed up with IT. I really enjoyed it, but got tripped up because it was so long. So I just wouldn't make any progress on it, because I was so frustrated with never making progress on it.

Yeah, I know how that sounds, but it happens in other areas too. On a diet? Give up because you blew it? Or, in the habit of exercising a certain amount, and give up when you get sick and can't go, or get busy and can't go, or get lazy and can't go?

It happens. Forgive yourself and move on.

But how can you prevent stuff like that from happening?

2. Set an easy goal to accomplish


I was having trouble earlier this year with George R. R. Martin's books. They are so long, and I was getting close to be stuck just like I had been stuck on IT. During A Storm of Swords, I became resolved: read at least 100 pages a day.

Will that make me finish the book in 2.4 days? No, because the book was about 1000 pages long. But it made sure that I kept reading, kept at it. Of course, that can be different for everyone. Finish three chapters, finish at least twenty pages...et cetera. Its like having a saving goal: I will try to save X amount over the course of a year, but in order to achieve that, I need to save $2 a day, or $10 a week.

It might not seem like a lot at first, but it all builds up.

3. Define your goal


I want to read 150 books this year. But what does that mean? Can I just go to the local library, read 150 books for 8 year olds, and be done with it?

Well, no. I'm not trying to dupe myself: I mean 150 books that I would read normally in a year. This means a mix of sci fi, fiction and literature, YA novels, and fantasy. I don't want to waste a year just reading easy books: I want to read like I normally would. I've also done a pretty good job this year incorporating non-fiction; I've read four so far this year and last year I only read six total.

I'm also incorporating books that I re-read, but I don't want my re-read books to reach higher than 10% of the total books I've read. Thus far, the books I have re-read account for 7.5% of the total books read.

4. Don't be afraid to give up on a book


Right now, I have a book about settler's first impressions of Illinois in my To Be Read stack. I probably won't read more than a little bit of it. I'll never want to read all of it, and I don't want to spend time forcing myself to do something I don't want to. If I don't like reading it, I won't want to read it, and I'll stall out on my goals. Giving up a book is no big deal.

Sometimes, you just aren't in the mood for a particular book. I read the first few pages of Life of Pi and set it right back down.

A few year later, I picked it up and read it in one sitting.



Want to take a look at the book spreadsheet? Updated every time I finish a book.

The 150 Book Challenge [Updates]

So far the challenge is going pretty well. I finished book 29 yesterday, and I'm midway through book 30:

I've been able to cycle books pretty quickly, partially because I've mastered keeping a flow of books coming. Without new books to read, the whole process would stop.

[Amazingly, the last ten books I have read have all been by women. That happen all the time.]

One thing that has been holding me back, though, has been how cold its been here in DC. I spend 15 to 30 minutes every day waiting for the bus (I have to transfer buses, which accounts for some of that time). Its been too cold to get my hands out of my coat to hold the book, so I've been waiting until I actually get in the bus to begin reading.

I've got to read 12 to 13 books a month, which so far I've been right on: I hit 25 books the last day of February. With the last few books added into the mix, I've been finishing a book every 2.3 days on average. In order to stay on pace, I have to finish nine more books this month.

In the wings, I have one of George R. R. Martin's books in my To Be Read pile. Those have been challenging this year, because they are 800-1000 pages long, and have taken 6-7 days to complete. So far to combat that I've been trying to get through at least 100 pages of it a day, no matter what.

Right now I'm 22 days ahead of where I was last year, or 7 books ahead. So its going pretty well. Just for a comparison, here's 2010:

And here's the same time period again, this year:
 

Pretty awesome. More books read in the same time period.

The 150 Book Challenge for 2011

Last year, after making the decision to keep track of all the books I read, I finally got an accurate count of how many books I read in a year.

One hundred, thirty seven.

Or 137.

However you put it, its a lot.

Here's the end of the list:

And this year, I thought: can't I do a little bit better than that? Why not go for 150? It averages out into 12.5 books a month. Finishing a book every 2 or 3 days.

So far, its going okay:

Yeah, that's right. I included Zombicorns by John Green (apparently, the spreadsheet has it misspelled) on the list, despite the fact that its not quite polished yet. Is that cheating? Since I made the rules...no, no its not! Plus, I donated $25 to Partners in Health to get that PDF'd to me, so I totally get the credit.

Anyway. I hope I stay on target. Its a long year ahead.