About

In 2009 I decided to challenge myself to read a book a week for a year.  52 books in 52 weeks.  It didn’t seem like an unattainable goal.  I like to read after all.

I failed. I think I read 34 books that year. So I tried again. The next year I hit my goal and went slightly over it. Since then I’ve gone a little crazy. One year I read more than 2 books a week and another year I read almost that much.

When I decided to try the 52 books challenge, I started keeping track of the books I read (the first year’s list is gone, though). That started with just the names of the books I read. In 2010 I started keeping track of the number of pages, too. After all, some books are short and some are long and some are absurdly long.

I read books from most genres, but some I am just plain not interested in. I don’t read romance novels. I also don’t read things (for the most part) that involve vampires. I don’t like horror and very scary books. I can’t read more than one true crime in a row (though I love true crime) because I start to get paranoid about everyone I come into contact with. I don’t like too much profanity and I really don’t like too much sex. I read a lot of young adult novels partly because I have a couple kids that read those (and I like to read what my kids read – we have some great conversations because of that). I don’t care much for scifi, though I will on occasion read one. I used to think I hated fantasy, but it turns out I do like it, but usually only if it’s aimed at kids and teens. I don’t read much in the way of self-help books. I love historical fiction and non-fiction, particularly if it’s US history related. Since we started the process to adopt our six littles I have read a lot less and tend toward cozy mysteries and light reads since that’s all my sleep deprived brain can process right now!

As for me, I’m a 44 year old mom of eleven kids, ages 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 14, 16, 21, 22, and 23. You can read all about our family at The Family Who.