Advance Booking

I had made a list of blogging goals and reading goals about six months back, and looking at the list, I see that I've fulfilled most of them. Except for the challenges. Honestly, I can't stick to challenges. I'm more of a random, impulsive reader, and whenever I have to stick to lists, my mind rebels. I drag my feet with those books, and ultimately end up not enjoying them, though I would probably have liked them if they hadn't been part of a list. Complicated? Weird? I think so too, but the mind wants what the mind wants. So, no challenges from now on.

And on the same note, no goals either. Goals make it sound like reading is a job to be done, with plans and results and what not involved. I read for pleasure, and goal-setting makes it seem like a task. It jinxes the process of reading. I do want to read more award-winning books, more series, more books in general, but I have found that I do end up reading good books whether I plan for it or not. So, even if the next year finds me reading zero award-winners and 100 Twilight-like books, so be it. I shall not complain.

I just want to list out my ten favorite reads of the last year, in alphabetical order.

1984- George Orwell
Anne of Green Gables- L.M. Montgomery
Artemis Fowl- Eoin Colfer
The Godfather- Mario Puzo
The Hunger Games- Suzanne Collins
The Kite Runner- Khaled Hosseini
The Remains of the Day- Kazuo Ishiguro
The Shadow of the Wind- Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Thirteenth Tale- Diane Setterfield
To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee

You can find a full list of the books I have read in the past year here. That's around 71 books. Hmmm...pretty ok, but I hope to do better this year.

One last thing. In celebration of my blogoversary, I'm having a giveaway of Beth Fantaskey's popular vampire romance, Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side. Giveaway is open internationally till February 21.