Reading Challenge 2011: My Personal Goals

It seems like every year since I first hosted the Reading Challenge, all my good intentions and wonderfully planned reading lists and ideas would come to nothing as I packed up my belongings and books yet again for another move. Sometimes it would be months before I got a chance to unpack my books and reading plans would fall through once again.
I’m not quite ready to say that this year, there’ll be no boxes and no failure of meeting my reading goals for this Reading Challenge 2011, because life is full of unexpected surprises, and I’m pretty sure that 2011 isn’t going to be so different. (Though I admit, I’m ready to skip on moving for a few years!)

But, I am very ready to start reading again. Since 2005 and the big Alaska move until this autumn, more or less, I can almost count the books I’ve actually completed on my fingers. For someone who use to read near constantly, this is rather pathetic.

The thing is, my life has changed drastically between 2004 and today. I have my own little home to keep up, and my own husband to love and to make happy and I absolutely cannot think of anything happier that I could be doing with my life right now. But I am also working, and somehow I don’t spend most of my free time reading anymore.

Thus, in an attempt to both push myself a little, and to be realistic, I’ve set my personal reading goal at 12 books this year.

That’s one book a month, and won’t include my Bible reading or the two books Scott and I are planning to read together for our evening worship this year

If I manage more than that, wonderful! And if I don’t make it to 12, but did my best, well… so be it. But this is my goal, and hopefully writing about it here each month will keep me motivated to take those extra little minutes to keep reading.

I will also be reading my bible again this year. I have not decided yet if I am going to follow a plan and finish it in one year, or if I am going to pace myself a little slower, but I’m leaning towards reading it in a year, because it has been two years since I did that and I miss reading consistently through the books each month.

And really, even if you only plan on 3 books (like another bloggy friend is aiming for, with two little people I think I’d be doing good to get one done!) this isn’t just about who reads the most books in a year, as reading what we can and challenging ourselves to do a little more than we think we can do.

So…now it is your turn! If you’ve written about your goals for this year, and want to share a link, you can use the Mr. Linky below, or just jot them into a comment.
If you are wanting to join us this year, you can take a peek at the official starting post for the season and leave me a comment and let me know! You can also grab the banner and feel free to pass the word along. Everyone is welcome.