(At Least) 12 Books in 12 Months

In the spirit of making promises to myself I hope I don't break, this year I promise to myself that I will read at least one book every month. That's probably nothing compared to what some people read, but last year I think I read one book total, so this is a big step up for me. It's not like one of those resolutions you make that forces you to do something you hate so you drop it by mid-February either like going to the gym or daily flossing (not that I don't do those things... sometimes...), I actually love to read, always have. And seeing as my wonderful husband gifted me with not one, but two Kindles for Christmas (be jealous), I have no excuse not to read the heck out of some books. My most awesomely awesome friend Laura at Tide and Thyme so graciously shared many fantastic books with me via her own Kindle and I now have tons of great, free-to-me literature at my fingertips.

I'm giving myself an overly ambitious start to the New Year too by reading two books at the same time.

The first is Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen which I am enjoying immensely. I'm about halfway through it now. I picked it out because I want to see the movie and I always read the book first as there's no point in doing it the other way around, and because I was able to borrow it for three through the Amazon lending library. Yay Amazon!

The second is Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling, or Kelly Kapoor from The Office, as I previously knew her, exclusively. I was intrigued with this book when I saw it hit bookshelves awhile ago, but I was hesitant to purcahse it as I'm cheap like that and I don't like having a lot of books laying around I'll never read again. On top of that, our library is more or less lame and rarely ever has anything that wasn't donated by a 90 year old lady in its collections (okay, that's not entirely true or fair but I'm all too often disappointed when I bother to check their catalog for something I want to read) and I have a better chance of winning the lottery than this book showing up there. Kaling's humor is right up my ally and I can relate to many of her stories about growing up. She sounds like someone with whom I would be fast friends and she's now my new favorite Office character because of this book. Okay, maybe second... I can't deny my love for Andrew Bernard.

Next month, I'm thinking I might stick to one (long) book and tackle Stephen King's 11.23.63, A Novel, which is a fictitious story surrounding the events of the assasination of John. F. Kennedy. I've never read a King book before and this one sounds like it will fascinate me more than it will terrorize me, so I think I will give it a go in February.

***UPDATE: I finished Water for Elephants on 1/3/2012. Off to a strong start! ***