Eighty One Books

As the end of June is nigh, I am halfway through my annual reading challenge, and as I don't foresee finishing The Master and Margarita by Friday night, I'll finish the month with 81 books read this year. Originally, my plan was to read 200 books in 2006, but full time work is a huge time waster, and therefore I have amended my goal to 175 books. I will be happy, however, if I manage 160. But we shall see. I've really enjoyed keeping track of my reading, and the funny relationships I've noticed because of the order in which I've happened to read books (the connection between Jane Jacobs and Grace Paley, that both Calvin O'Keefe and Jay Gatsby call people "Old Sport" [in A Wrinkle in Time and The Great Gatsby, respectively]). The holes in my reading too (those poor neglected male novelists). I think there is nothing wrong with reading being more systematic. I would also like to stand as living proof that people who have "no time to read" are lying!