Well, it has officially been three months since I started my backlog challenge. I will be giving an update every three months on how I am progressing, and include thoughts and musings about the books I have read, the challenges I have encountered, and the state of myself in general. Essentially, these updates will act as personal markers to look back on where I have been so far, and how much further I have to go. I hope they will be motivational tools.
So far, I have read eight out of forty books in my backlog. This puts me off the pace by two books at this stage in the road. As you may have noticed, there was a giant gap between Neuromancer and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This is because Neuromancer was literally one of the most difficult and tiresome books I have ever read. My motivation to read it was sapped almost every time I cracked its covers; I would read five or ten pages at a time before putting it back down again. As mentioned in my review, I just did not get it and came to the conclusion that it was not for me.
To make up for the massive gap, and seeing that I was almost a quarter of the way through the backlog year, I decided to take on some of the smaller books in my pile. Within a week, I ate through four children's books, and just finished up a graphic novel last night. Call it cheating, but I needed to do it if I was to feel like I had any chance of catching up to my goal.
In terms of my favourite books that I have read up to this point, the latest, Blankets, sits neatly at the top of the list, alongside The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The past week and a half has actually been great to getting my motivation up again, and I feel fully in the swing of things and like I can still catch up and then try to maintain the original pace of one book every nine days.
Life has been busy for me, but the holidays have been kind in granting me some extra time here and there, and I have been disciplined with myself. Overall, things are looking up!
Here is the first quarter stats sheet. My desired pace is 1 book, approximately every 9 days.
Books Read: 8/40 (20%)
Time Passed (In Months): 3/12 (25%)
Current Pace: 1 book per 11.375 days
Required Pace To Finish By September 13, 2010: 1 book every 8.5625 days
Time to get back at it.
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