Why are we here?

As this is my first posting, I will attempt to describe what my purpose is for those of you who might end up reading it. I do not pride myself on being a great writer. In fact, I feel that I am a very mediocre writer and do not entertain any grandiose ideas of people being so interested in what I have to say or in my style of writing that they come far and wide to check it out like many do with Dooce. I must admit, then, that this blog has been created primarily for my own benefit, and if others happen to be interested or helped along the way, so be it.

The fact of the matter is that I don't have anything really interesting to say and do not want to attempt to make a name for myself among the myriads of bloggers out there. What I can write about, however, is about the books that I have read. Reading is one of my favorite pasttimes and once I've read a book, I put it away on the dusty bookshelf and probably never pick it up again. I never write anything down about the books I've read and I have gotten to the point where I read so many of them that I forget what any of them were about. I know that I LOVED the book, but don't ask me to give you the plot description. I can't.

What I'm trying to accomplish with this blog is to cronicle the books that I've read (as they say, for posterity's sake), perhaps give my own amateurish review of the book, and maybe even discuss the book. This will be my journey.

I was reading through some FAQs on one of my favorite author's websites (Dean Koontz) and he has said that he reads anywhere between 150 and 200 books a year. I have never thought to keep track of my reading lists, so I don't know how many I have gotten to in any given year, but I can tell you this - it's no where near 150. I also read a post by a woman who is so addicted to reading that she has up to 26-some books open (READ: being actively read) at any one time. She said it might take her 10 years to read Homer's The Iliad, but by god she'll do it. Seeing as though my attention span (and memory) is not that advanced, I could never pull it off myself. Though I can't approximate either one of these book-aholics, I will do what I think may be possible FOR ME. I am going to attempt to read 52 books this year, with an average of a book a week. Some will take a short time, others longer, but that is my goal. We'll see on October 23rd, 2007 if I'm there or not.