There’s A Chance I May Be Spending Too Much Time Reading Again

I swore this year I would spend a little less time reading and a little more time writing. However, reflecting on the halfway point of the year, I may still be spending a bit too much of my time reading instead of writing. After all, I made a goal of reading 150 books this year. Since I’ve read 139 books from January through June and only need to read 11 in the rest of the year to make goal, I think there is a chance I could go over goal again.

Mind you, I’ve already done more writing this year than I did last year. I suppose that should be the big consideration. Still.

Each of the last six years, since 2006, I’ve read more than the year before. I suppose that isn’t really surprising since 2006 was the year I graduated law school. 2005 I only read 23 books, in 2006 I read 30. Things go up from there 2007: 50, 2008: 76, 2009: 105, 2010: 169, 2011: 318. As I mentioned before, 139 in just the first half of 2012.

I suppose I really should spend more time writing and less time reading, but it’s hard to stop. Further, as long as I’m doing more writing than in previous years…should I really worry about it too much? I’m not sure, but I probably can’t stop reading anyway.

Regardless, to make this post awkwardly long, here’s what I’ve read so far in 2012:

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues	Robbins, Tom	Jun 30, 2012 [edit]
Cat Daddy: How One Very Special Cat Fixed One Very Broken Man	Galaxy, Jackson	Jun 30, 2012 [edit]
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen	Torday, Paul	Jun 29, 2012 [edit]
Strange Pilgrims	Márquez, Gabriel García	Jun 29, 2012 [edit]
On Booze	Fitzgerald, F. Scott	Jun 28, 2012 [edit]
The Coldest Winter Ever	Souljah, Sister	Jun 28, 2012 [edit]
Varamo	Aira, César	Jun 28, 2012 [edit]
The Optimist’s Daughter	Welty, Eudora	Jun 26, 2012 [edit]
Fine Just the Way It Is: Wyoming Stories 3	Proulx, Annie	Jun 26, 2012 [edit]
Sugar and Other Stories	Byatt, A.S.	Jun 25, 2012 [edit]
The Signal	Carlson, Ron	Jun 25, 2012 [edit]
The Hall of the Singing Caryatids	Pelevin, Victor	Jun 24, 2012 [edit]
The Imperfectionists	Rachman, Tom	Jun 24, 2012 [edit]
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter	McCullers, Carson	Jun 23, 2012 [edit]
Antwerp	Bolaño, Roberto	Jun 23, 2012 [edit]
Villa Incognito	Robbins, Tom	Jun 21, 2012 [edit]
Memories of My Melancholy Whores	Márquez, Gabriel García	Jun 20, 2012 [edit]
Hairstyles of the Damned	Meno, Joe	Jun 20, 2012 [edit]
Break of Day	Colette	Jun 19, 2012 [edit]
Vox	Baker, Nicholson	Jun 19, 2012 [edit]
Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure	Chabon, Michael	Jun 19, 2012 [edit]
Right Ho, Jeeves	Wodehouse, P.G.	Jun 18, 2012 [edit]
Everyday Genius – The June Issue	Robinson, Adam	Jun 18, 2012 [edit]
Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas	Robbins, Tom	Jun 17, 2012 [edit]
How We are Hungry	Eggers, Dave	Jun 15, 2012 [edit]
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk: A Novel	Fountain, Ben	Jun 14, 2012 [edit]
Monsieur Pain	Bolaño, Roberto	Jun 14, 2012 [edit]
The Great Perhaps	Meno, Joe	Jun 12, 2012 [edit]
Rule of the Bone	Banks, Russell	Jun 11, 2012 [edit]
Brief Encounters with Che Guevara: Stories	Fountain, Ben	Jun 10, 2012 [edit]
Syrup	Barry, Max *	Jun 10, 2012 [edit]
Trout Fishing in America	Brautigan, Richard	Jun 10, 2012 [edit]
Good Intentions	Lacy, Jeff	Jun 09, 2012 [edit]
The Red and the Black	Stendhal	Jun 08, 2012 [edit]
We Only Know So Much: A Novel	Crane, Elizabeth	Jun 05, 2012 [edit]
Pirate Therapy and Other Cures	Rayner, Mark A. *	Jun 05, 2012 [edit]
A Fraction of the Whole	Toltz, Steve	Jun 04, 2012 [edit]
Chronicle of a Death Foretold	Márquez, Gabriel García	Jun 04, 2012 [edit]
In the Electric Eden: Stories	Arvin, Nick	May 30, 2012 [edit]
Orientation: And Other Stories	Orozco, Daniel *	May 30, 2012 [edit]
Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates	Robbins, Tom	May 28, 2012 [edit]
Water for Elephants	Gruen, Sara	May 24, 2012 [edit]
The Free World: A Novel	Bezmozgis, David *	May 22, 2012 [edit]
The Shipping News	Proulx, Annie	May 20, 2012 [edit]
Pale Fire	Nabokov, Vladimir	May 16, 2012 [edit]
Three Novels: Molloy / Malone Dies / The Unnamable	Beckett, Samuel	May 14, 2012 [edit]
In Great Company	Seidlinger, Michael J. *	May 13, 2012 [edit]
The Amadeus Net	Rayner, Mark A. *	May 12, 2012 [edit]
Hell: A Novel	Butler, Robert Olen	May 12, 2012 [edit]
The Master and Margarita	Bulgakov, Mikhail	May 10, 2012 [edit]
Tooth Imprints on a Corn Dog	Leyner, Mark	May 07, 2012 [edit]
Cures for Hunger: A Memoir	Bechard, Deni Y. *	May 06, 2012 [edit]
The Lay of the Land	Ford, Richard	May 05, 2012 [edit]
The Three Fates of Henrik Nordmark: A Novel	Meades, Christopher *	May 05, 2012 [edit]
The Death of Ivan Ilych And Other Stories	Tolstoy, Leo	Apr 29, 2012 [edit]
The Story Within: New Insights and Inspiration for Writers	Oliver, Laura	Apr 29, 2012 [edit]
I Smell Esther Williams	Leyner, Mark	Apr 29, 2012 [edit]
Say, Poem	Robinson, Adam	Apr 28, 2012 [edit]
My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist	Leyner, Mark	Apr 28, 2012 [edit]
The Year of the Gadfly	Miller, Jennifer *	Apr 28, 2012 [edit]
Independence Day	Ford, Richard	Apr 26, 2012 [edit]
Et Tu, Babe	Leyner, Mark	Apr 26, 2012 [edit]
The Gone-Away World	Harkaway, Nick *	Apr 24, 2012 [edit]
The Fermata	Baker, Nicholson	Apr 23, 2012 [edit]
The Tetherballs of Bougainville	Leyner, Mark	Apr 22, 2012 [edit]
COMATOSE	Tyler, J. A.	Apr 22, 2012 [edit]
Train Dreams: A Novella	Johnson, Denis	Apr 21, 2012 [edit]
Swamplandia!	Russell, Karen *	Apr 21, 2012 [edit]
The Sportswriter: Bascombe Trilogy (1)	Ford, Richard	Apr 20, 2012 [edit]
The Lola Quartet	Mandel, Emily St. John *	Apr 18, 2012 [edit]
The Reconstructionist	Arvin, Nick	Apr 18, 2012 [edit]
A Common Pornography: A Memoir	Sampsell, Kevin *	Apr 17, 2012 [edit]
Townie: A Memoir	III, Andre Dubus	Apr 16, 2012 [edit]
The Sugar Frosted Nutsack	Leyner, Mark	Apr 15, 2012 [edit]
Legs Get Led Astray	Caldwell, Chloe *	Apr 14, 2012 [edit]
The Golden Bowl	James, Henry	Apr 13, 2012 [edit]
Torch	Strayed, Cheryl *	Apr 10, 2012 [edit]
Something to Help Me Sleep	Kay, Liz	Apr 08, 2012 [edit]
The Night In Question: Stories	Wolff, Tobias	Apr 08, 2012 [edit]
Chicago Stories: 40 Dramatic Fictions	Czyzniejewski, Michael	Apr 08, 2012 [edit]
The Namesake	Lahiri, Jhumpa	Apr 07, 2012 [edit]
Variations of a Brother War	Tyler, J. A.	Apr 06, 2012 [edit]
The Tortilla Curtain	Boyle, T.C.	Apr 06, 2012 [edit]
Antelope Wife	Erdrich, Louise	Apr 05, 2012 [edit]
The Sky Conducting	Seidlinger, Michael J. *	Apr 04, 2012 [edit]
Suddenly, a Knock on the Door: Stories	Keret, Etgar	Apr 04, 2012 [edit]
The Names of Things	Wood, John Colman *	Apr 03, 2012 [edit]
VII	Muntz, Kyle *	Apr 02, 2012 [edit]
The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim	Coe, Jonathan	Apr 2012 [edit]
A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)	Martin, George R.R.	Mar 31, 2012 [edit]
The Fallback Plan	Stein, Leigh *	Mar 27, 2012 [edit]
Clarissa, or the History of a Young Lady	Richardson, Samuel	Mar 26, 2012 [edit]
Death-in-a-Box	Ifland, Alta *	Mar 20, 2012 [edit]
Articles of War	Arvin, Nick	Mar 20, 2012 [edit]
Another Roadside Attraction	Robbins, Tom	Mar 19, 2012 [edit]
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail	Strayed, Cheryl *	Mar 13, 2012 [edit]
Hot Pink	Levin, Adam	Mar 11, 2012 [edit]
The Land of Decoration	McCleen, Grace	Mar 10, 2012 [edit]
Cataclysm Baby	Bell, Matt *	Mar 09, 2012 [edit]
Our Game	Carré, John le	Mar 07, 2012 [edit]


The Cage Keeper and Other Stories	III, Andre Dubus	Mar 04, 2012 [edit]
Threats	Gray, Amelia *	Mar 04, 2012 [edit]
Joseph Andrews/Shamela	Fielding, Henry	Feb 28, 2012 [edit]
Pamela; Or, Virtue Rewarded	Richardson, Samuel	Feb 26, 2012 [edit]
Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World: A novel	Antrim, Donald	Feb 25, 2012 [edit]
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter: A Novel	Llosa, Mario Vargas	Feb 24, 2012 [edit]
The Garden of Last Days	III, Andre Dubus	Feb 22, 2012 [edit]
The Fourth Bear (Nursery Crime, #2)	Fforde, Jasper	Feb 20, 2012 [edit]
The Collected Stories	Porter, Katherine Anne	Feb 19, 2012 [edit]
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union	Chabon, Michael	Feb 18, 2012 [edit]
Machine of Death: A Collection of Stories About People Who Know How They Will Die	North, Ryan	Feb 17, 2012 [edit]
The Beet Queen	Erdrich, Louise	Feb 16, 2012 [edit]
Bluesman: A Novel	III, Andre Dubus	Feb 16, 2012 [edit]
JR	Gaddis, William	Feb 15, 2012 [edit]
Western Avenue and Other Fictions	Arroyo, Fred	Feb 12, 2012 [edit]
The Flame Alphabet	Marcus, Ben *	Feb 12, 2012 [edit]
One Hundred and Forty Five Stories in a Small Box: Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape, How the Water Feels to the Fishes, and Minor Robberies	Manguso, Sarah	Feb 11, 2012 [edit]
A Very Minor Prophet: A Novel	Frost, James Bernard *	Feb 11, 2012 [edit]
A Hollow Cube Is a Lonely Space	Foster, S.D. *	Feb 10, 2012 [edit]
Underworld	DeLillo, Don	Feb 10, 2012 [edit]
God’s Autobio	Rolli	Feb 06, 2012 [edit]
Super Sad True Love Story: A Novel	Shteyngart, Gary	Feb 06, 2012 [edit]
John Dies at the End	Wong, David	Feb 02, 2012 [edit]
What it Was	Pelecanos, George	Jan 31, 2012 [edit]
Tours of the Black Clock	Erickson, Steve	Jan 30, 2012 [edit]
Glaciers	Smith, Alexis M. *	Jan 29, 2012 [edit]
Shenanigans!	Owens, Joseph Michael	Jan 24, 2012 [edit]
The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I Am	Skomsvold, Kjersti A.	Jan 22, 2012 [edit]
Vicky Swanky Is a Beauty	Williams, Diane	Jan 20, 2012 [edit]
Three Ways of the Saw	Mullins, Matt	Jan 15, 2012 [edit]
The Verificationist: A Novel	Antrim, Donald	Jan 14, 2012 [edit]
Oblivion	Wallace, David Foster	Jan 13, 2012 [edit]
Close Encounters Close Encounters	Michalski, Jen *	Jan 11, 2012 [edit]
Steps	Kosiński, Jerzy	Jan 10, 2012 [edit]
The Third Reich	Bolaño, Roberto	Jan 08, 2012 [edit]
You Are a Little Bit Happier Than I Am	Lin, Tao *	Jan 07, 2012 [edit]
Parallel Stories	Nádas, Péter	Jan 07, 2012 [edit]
Norwegian Wood	Murakami, Haruki	Jan 02, 2012 [edit]