Reading, Reading, Ready, and READ!!

OK.

I’ve been reading a lot lately. I admit it and I’m okay with it.

I recently asked people to post on my Facebook page books they enjoyed reading in 2014 and I got plenty of new stuff to stack up on my nightstand (I would stack them on my nightstand if my Sweetie will let me stack ANYTHING on my nightstand…)

After receiving so many great book suggestions, it became apparent that I have some very intelligent friends! Who knew?!!

Sometimes I like reading for the sake of reading. It’s an escape. Some of the things that I read are not very challenging or very difficult. BUT, when I start on an Isaac Asimov, Simon Green, Ian Banks or any other similar books, I can’t put it down. I just can’t! However, I have to POWER through some short stories in The Paris Review (TPR). I recently finished a nearly 300 page novel (broken into 4 segments and published over a year in TPR) by Robert Bolano. When I was finished, I only could ask myself, ‘Why did I put myself through this?’ I just didn’t enjoy it. Am I so bad?

My reading goals this year are to read the Isaac Asimov ‘Foundation’ series (starting with the Empire Novels), then each month I will read an entire issue of TPR. I’m 12 issues (3 years!!) behind, so at the end of the year, I’ll be caught up, except for the 4 issues I’ll get this year…so I’ll be a year behind. Oh well.

Stick around and find out my relationship with The Paris Review and how I deal with those periodicals! (very dramatic ending to a blog post, huh?!) In the meantime, what are you reading? Anything I just HAVE to check out? Do you read just for fun, as an escape, or do you look for challenging reads? Does a challenging read equal a larger reward? Let me know!