Book It 2010

So, long before I read on Life as Mom or Organizing Your Way about resolutions (or goals) for the new year I had decided that I needed to get back to reading more. I am a reader. I am. I love to read. I'll read anything that sits still long enough for me to read it. Cereal box while eating breakfast? Check. Shampoo bottles while enjoying a warm lazy shower? Check. The little cards in the back pocket of airplane seats? Check. A good (and even a not so good) book? Check. I read it all...

Just before Christmas I realized that I hadn't set foot in the library in probably two months and it had been just as long since I'd read a book. Now, I'd done some reading here and there (you know - the backs of those cereal boxes and all) but nothing to truly quench my thirst for reading. So I had decided that I NEEDED to get back to reading.

When we kept LeeAnn in Story Hour monthly, we'd hit the library every week (for her to attend class) but with preschool two days a week and dance one day a week - we thought throwing Story Hour in there weekly might be much for the poor girl...she is only four! And so while she has done some Story Hour since the new school year started, she's done the early morning class (so Daddy gets to take her) and Mommy gets jipped on the book scene.

And then I read Organizing Your Way's post about reading more in 2010 and thought, yeah...I really need to get on it! And THEN Life as Mom had to post about BOOK IT 2010 and I knew then that my thoughts on reading more were going to become a reality.

So here are my reasonings and goals for BOOK IT 2010:

I want to read for a variety of reasons...

• I want to read for pleasure. I LOVE TO READ. LOVE IT. Seriously. When I was younger and would disobey my parents...instead of being grounded or having the phone taken away from me - my mom would take away my books. It was pure torture to my little heart and it didn't take but two or three times of that for me to get my butt in gear and not let it happen again.
• I want to read for personal growth. Brian and I have recently gone through Financial Peace University and after reading FPU Revisted and Total Money Makeover (the book that got us all started), I've decided that I'd like to continue reading (and rereading) Ramsey's teachings to keep me on the right path.
• I want to read for my family. I try to keep the house clean (well, I do try!) and watch our purse strings but I know there are books out there that can help me on this subject. I have heard of one - The Complete Tightwad Gazette - that sounds like it has some very good info in it. And I guess there are actually three separate books but the Complete one has all three books bound together. 
• I want to read more with LeeAnn. We used to read a book every night before bed (and I'd sing her a song too) but somehow (sometime - not even sure when) we got away from it and I miss it. I'm not sure if she misses it as much as I do but she's asked recently if we can read before bed. It means starting the bedtime routine a bit earlier but I think it'll be good for her (and me too).
• And if I can squeeze in some books on photography (what I love) and God (where I want to grow) then I think I'll have a nice, rounded-out reading list.

How to I plan on completing this? My first thought was a book a week. But here it is...almost a full week into the new year and I haven't even hit the library yet. So - I've considered making my goal to read 52 books this year (just not one a week). There are times (on vacation, when I'm sick) that I can put away two or three books in a week so maybe 52 per year is a better way to go. But what if I can't do it? What happens if I hit a reading slump again and don't touch a book for months? All of these thoughts and ideas have led me to say I'm going to read what I can, when I can and I'm going to keep track of them too. Whether I blog them here or just keep a paper and pen list at home, I'm going to track every book I read (well, minus LeeAnn's books because we do a lot of rereading the same books).

So, here I go. BOOK IT 2010!