Reading spree

I’m not sure what happened, but I’ve been tearing through books — and their writeups — for my Andrea Reads America reading project. Maybe it was the realization that I’ve been at this for five years now. Maybe it’s the time of year. Or maybe I just needed to unblock myself by reducing the number of blogs I maintain from six to two.

Whatever it is, I like it. In the past two weeks I’ve published book roundups for three states: New Mexico, New York, and North Carolina. I’m not saying the writing is good, but at least the posts are done.

Publishing the writeups is the hardest part of my reading project and is what slows me down. Maybe part of my recent spree is that I’ve stopped putting pressure on myself for those roundups. I treat them more like a diary — I write as if nobody is reading.

Given this recent spurt of activity, I’m wondering if I can finish this project by the end of 2019. I’ve got 17 more states to read. At 3 books per state, that’s 51 books in 13 months, or 4 books per month, or 1 book per week. Plus all the writeups.

Hmmm, maybe that’s too ambitious. Though I published these writeups within two weeks, I didn’t read all 12 of the books within two weeks. I think I was almost finished reading New York before I even began writing up New Mexico. And I often find it hard to stop at just 3 books per state (see New York above).

I’ll see where I am at the end of 2018 and then decide. With the end in sight, I’m getting pretty excited about what I’ve read so far, what’s left to read, and what it’s going to feel like to have done this.