Counting The Piles, A Scorecard, and A Plan

When I first did the exercise of reading and reviewing 52 books in a year, one of the goals was to reduce the number of unread books in the house. That secondary goal still applies and was freshened by the recent arrival of three books:

• The Woman Who Died A Lot by Jasper Fforde (novel)
• Gun Machine by Warren Ellis (novel)
• The Last Lion: Defender of the Realm by William Manchester and Paul Reid (biography)

The observant reader will note this leaves me one book further behind than at the beginning of the year. Fear not; I have two completed books that have short reviews posted elsewhere with full reviews to be finished up here. Be patient; I'm not being lazy or otherwise falling behind.

All of these are specific goals and eminently countable. So here's the scorecard for 2013 to date:

Week#: 2

Books obtained: 3

Books read: 4

Books reread: 0

Short reviews written: 4

Long reviews written: 2

Net change to unread shelf: -1

Books started but not yet finished: 2

It all looks good until you consider that the Manchester and Reid checks in at 1173 pages. It's been nearly two decades since the second volume was read, and I'm seriously considering rereading the first two before starting the last. They come to 1500 pages or so, which would take some time. On the other hand, they count towards my reading and reviewing goals and I'm already two weeks ahead of the reading schedule. So I'll read the first few chapters of Lion and see if my memory needs a refresh first.