Where Did the Time Go?

Yes, it's been nearly 4 years. After only a few months posting and a handful of posts and reviews, I fell off the face of the Earth. Why? Well, the short synopsis is: I got pregnant. With triplets. It was a very difficult pregnancy with a lengthy hospital stay followed by preterm babies (all fine, by the by). Since then, I've been busy wrangling three babies who have now turned into three year old toddlers. Craziness. I've been really busy and preoccupied with all that sort of craziness entails.

Since the last time I wrote, my reading, as well as my reading list project, have taken a serious hit. Seriously, free time is not something I've had a lot of, and I'm so tired all the time that the minute I pick up a book, I tend to fall asleep. Needless to say, I'm pretty sure I've read fewer books in the past four years (in total!) than I did in 2009. But, now I'm trying to find my way back to some semblance of my former self, and I'm primarily focusing on getting my reading/writing goals back to where they used to be.

It has been a slow process and I've had to work at it, to force myself to do something for myself, to not veg out and let my mind rest/waste. My current self can hardly imagine I ever had the time to read 50+ books a year. In 2013, I read 21 books and a total of 9053 pages, and it felt like a huge accomplishment. This year my goal is a slight stretch at 25 books and 10,220 pages (yeah, I still do that). At this stage, the point is to push myself a little towards a reasonable goal so that a) I have a chance of reaching it and b) I don't start to see reading as a chore.

Additionally, I have a bit of a mental list in my head of some of the books I want to read, but despite toying with the idea, I've opted not to commit myself to anything in particular. Once again, I don't want this to feel like work or a job. If I commit to any set book list, I'll feel like I HAVE to read them, and even if I wanted to read them before, it will take the fun out of it, I'll drag my feet, and I won't meet my other reading goals for the year. So there will be none of that.

Anyway, I'm going to try and write more often, following my original format, and I hope that at some point I'll have a few readers that will join in the fun with me. Here's to more reading in 2014!