I read 52 books in 11 months!

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52 books, book challenge, books, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Crime and Punishment, goodreads, James and the Giant Peach, Kenan & Kel, leaving university, Lemony Snicket, Peter Pan, reading, reading for pleasure, roald dahl, studying, The Hobbit, The Notebook

One 2013 resolution I was hopeful to fulfil but not entirely sure about was reading 52 books in a year.

But look at that! I DID

This post is like my Oscar Award speech and what I have to say is this:

‘Coming out of a literature degree was like being given the ticket to Disney Land and then realising it’s not all that its cracked up to be. Assignments upon assignments means you don’t really get to enjoy reading, it becomes a chore. So when people wondered why I walked out of Waterstones and WHSmiths empty handed, I would feel really low. In the dumps, rock bottom, kicked whilst down etc etc. Why? I couldn’t read again. I was bruised by the whole regimental aspect of getting through over 20 books in an academic year. The pleasure of reading had left me and I was wondering about post-university unable to look at books with love and joy as I once did.

But when the end of summer was upon me in 2012 I realised that I couldn’t let this continue. I missed so much about reading: of looking at a bookshelf and getting excited. Of getting a paper cut from turning a page. Of closing a book and thinking ‘this edition had 7 typos including one in the acknowledgements’.

So I gradually started to read again. It was tough, especially after getting a job I feared that I would be back where I started. So come December 2012 I decided to set myself a goal: to read. I knew that being the person that I am, I would fight work and sleep to succeed. Now I sit here typing up this speech, with a smile on my face and the feeling of awesome-ness.‘

Here’s a list of all my books (in order of reading from Jan – Nov 2013):

The Hours, One Day, The Twits, Esio Trot, Say I Love You (Vol 7, manga), Say I Love You (Vol 8), The Magic Finger, The Giraffe And The Pelly And Me, Going Solo, Fantastic Mr Fox, The Fault In Our Stars, Why We Broke Up, The Reader, George’s Marvelous Medicine, Boy: Tales of Childhood, James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Hobbit, The Notebook, Who Could That Be At This Hour? (All The Wrong Questions #1), Crime and Punishment, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, Dengeki Daisy (Vol 12, manga), Atonement, The Witches, Say I Love You (Vol 9), A Thousad Splendid Suns, From Me to You (Vol 10, manga), Say I Love You (Vol 10), From Me to You (Vol 11), From Me to You (Vol 12), From Me to You (Vol 13), From Me to You (Vol 14), Peter Pan, From Me to You (Vol 15), From Me to You (Vol 16), From Me to You (Vol 17), From Me to You (Vol 18), From Me to You (Vol 19), Life of Pi, Inu X Boku (Vol 1, manga), From Me to You (Vol 20), Inu X Boku (Vol 2), Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events: Bad Beginnings,  The Reptile Room, The Wide Window, The Miserable Mill, The Austere Academy, The Ersatz Elevator,  The Vile Village, The Hostile Hospital and The Carnivorous Carnival.

From my reading I had other mini challenges which I hope to still complete. One was reading all the Roald Dahl books and the other was Lemony Snicket’s series. And, I didn’t discriminate; I read all kinds of books and these are generally the sort of books I read anyway. Might make me look like some sort of mixed up adult but this has been a year filled with nostalgia (hence all the kids books!).

I think I’ll go for another year reading challenge, but not make it as big as 52. I have plans for next year and I can’t say I’ll have time to read…much. For pleasure that is. In the voice of Kel “Ahhhhhhh, here it goes”