Race to the End? Or Save for Next Year?

 I had hoped to get to these three books by the end of the year. Sadly, I will only get to one of them: Return of the Spider. 

My Christmas tradition, for many years, has been to stay up all night on December 25 and read the new Alex Cross, which I had just received (or bought for myself) for Christmas. 

Realistically knowing that I would not get to these books but optimistically thinking I might, on Saturday I bought this book because, not only am I intrigued by it, just about everyone I follow on tik tok has recommended it, and it was one of the picks of one of my local independent bookstore's book club's last month. (It's the book club I like to say I belong to although I've never been to a meeting. I do buy the books, though.)

 

 

 

The reason I believe I will not get to all of those books is that I am currently reading/listening to these: 

I have a nearly one-hour commute (half an hour each way) every day and needed something for the next couple of days so I searched Libby for something "available now." Ann Patchett: Good. Narrator: Meryl Streep. Yes, please! I started it yesterday and had to remind myself to save some of it for today and Tuesday. It's so good! (The reason I had to remind myself is that on Saturday "The Favorites" by Layne Fargo was available on Libby via audiobook. I couldn't stop listening and finished it that day.)

Anyway, I can't remember where I saw a snippet of an interview with Jodi Picoult where she was talking about "nineteen minutes" being one of the most banned books in the country. Of course that made me want to read it. Thankfully, because this was very late on a Thursday night and too late to go out shopping and I wanted it now, it was available on Libby e-reader.

I started "bright lights, big Christmas" a couple of weeks ago because I hadn't read a Christmas-y book in a while. I had been reading some pretty dark stuff lately and needed a change. And, you can't go wrong with Mary Kay Andrews, right? (I might finish before Christmas if I put everything else aside -- other reading, crafting, cleaning -- Tuesday after work and Wednesday.)

But, wouldn't you know it? I belong to a trivia team that plays once a month at the local library. We came in first last week and three books, two of which I had already read, were in the prize package. This was the third:

Well, barring any unforeseen circumstances, this will be my Christmas read for next year.

Don't worry, though. Not finishing those books does not put me in danger of not reaching my goal for the year. My original goal was 26 books. (I had been in a slump for a few years.) I reached that fairly early in the year so I bumped it up to 33. I reached that, too, but didn't change the goal because I didn't want to tempt fate. So far, I have read 108 books (327% of my goal). That could be the most I've ever read in a year. It's the most I've read since I started keeping track.

Next year's goal is 52 (the fate thing again) and I have four picked out already.