My 2016 Reading Challenge

Something you might not know about me is that I love to read. I always have. My dream as a child was to read through our entire town’s library. Just the kids’ floor though, that’s where all the good books were, am I right? You know, The Baby-Sitters Club, Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew…this could go on all day.

At the start of 2015, I was working on finishing up my master’s degree (which I did get later that year, yay!), but realized my time was completely booked! As in, I had zero time for reading. Here’s what my daily schedule looked like:

• 5 am: Wake up promptly and begin reading for class
• 7:45 am: Get ready for work
• 8:30 am: Arrive at work and jump right in
• 12 pm: Lunch! I’d allow myself to pick up lunch on some days, but others I’d have to close myself into my office to start working on discussion board posts
• 1 pm: Back at it
• 5 pm: Home to make dinner
• 6 pm: Back to my desk (okay…my bed) to finish up discussion board posts and start working on homework
• 11 pm: Bed (hopefully)
• 5 am: Start all over again!

Now that you know what a typical day looked like in 2014 – 2015, I realized I’m also leaving out all of our meetings/events for BOS Lady Project (if you live in Boston, check it out!) and volunteering with Sigma Kappa at Northeastern. Anyways, it was a busy, busy time – you get the gist.

When I realized I had barely read any books “for fun” in 2014, I was devastated! I let one of the activities I truly loved slip so far out of my grasp I couldn’t even see it anymore. Does that even make sense? Oh well, I’m okay with it.

So, in 2015 I made a goal of jumping back on the reading train and reading through 12 books – one per month. It wasn’t an overly impressive or excessive goal, but with my busy schedule, it felt nearly impossible.

Curious to know if I accomplished it?

I did! And I actually read 13 books! It felt great. So, so great. In fact, here are the books I read in 2015:

• The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
• Yes Please by Amy Poehler
• Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s “Learned” by Lena Dunham
• Horrostör by Grady Hendrix
• Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling
• Bossy Pants by Tina Fey
• The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
• Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon
• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondō
• Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
• The Vacationers by Emma Straub
• To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
• How to Make Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

2016 Reading Challenge

For 2016, I’m going all out and doubling my goal. 24 books in 12 months. Two per month, doable! Right? I think so. Thanks for reassuring me.

Right now I’m reading B.J. Novak’s One More Thing and have a few others in my to-read pile at home. Here’s what I’ll be starting the year with:

• Dear Mr. You by Mary-Louise Parker
• Church of Marvels by Leslie Parry
• The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith
• Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
• The First Bad Man by Miranda July
• The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez
• Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris
• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

I’ll be tracking my progress over on Goodreads, so feel free to follow along there!

Are you setting a reading challenge (or another kind of challenge) for 2016? And if you have any book recommendations, do share!

ps. In other news, who’s listening to the second season of Serial?! What do you think?

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