~When I Read What I Read

A project of this size begs organization. When I was a kid I would hide six or seven books behind my back, shuffle them around and then try to randomly chose the next one to read. It never worked. I always was dissatisfied with my random selection and ended up picking something completely different. As an adult I still have a hard time making a decision. I seem to know what I don’t want. A conversation with my husband about dining out might sound something like this:
“Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t care.”
“Okay. How about Chinese?”
“Nah.”
“Mexican?”
“Nah.”
“Thought you said you didn’t care?”
“I didn’t…until I did!”

So, deciding what to read for the Book Lust Challenge had to have structure. It was sure to fail if I didn’t come up with a schedule or scheme of some sort. After many, many months of organizing this is a sample of what I came up with:

• January is the month Michigan became a state so I will read something taking place (or written about) Michigan.
• February is the month to celebrate Valentine’s Day so I will read a romance.
• March is National Literature month so I will chose a classic like Jane Eyre.
• April is National Architect month so I will read something related to buildings or architects.
• May is Queen Victoria’s birth month so I will read Christopher Hibbert’s Queen Victoria: A Personal History.
• June is National Family month so I will read something from the chapter called, “All in the Family: Writer Dynasties” (p 5 in More Book Lust).
• July is National Ice Cream month so I will read something that should make me happy.
• August is Isabel Allende’s birth month so I will read something written by her.
• September is the best month to visit Italy so I will read books either by Italian authors, books that take place in Italy or are about Italy.
• October is the month to celebrate Halloween so I’ll read a ghost story.
• November is National Adoption month so I will read something from the chapter called “Adapting to Adoption” (p1 of More Book Lust).
• December is the month Iowa became a state so I will read something to honor the Iowa Writers Workshop…

Of course this whole thing is tracked and plotted through pages and pages of spreadsheets. Each month has its list of books, complete with a chronological order so I even know what I’ll be reading in 2025…Is that sad, scary or what?