Read Your Bookshelves in 2011? That's 420 Books!

Four hundred and twenty books! I counted. And listed all the titles on a Word document which is stapled and lying in front of me as I type this. If I follow through with my goal to read all the books in my collection (minus technical text books for hubz's degrees and the whole shelf of children's books), I'll have to read more than one book per day in 2011!

Hmm... might not be able to achieve this New Year's Resolution in one year.

BUT...

I think it's worth a try. Even if it takes a couple years to achieve this goal, how cool would it be to point at my massive library and say, "Yes, I've read every book!"

So cool.

Plus, imagine the wealth of writing styles and random information I'll be able to draw from when writing my own fiction!

Thus, my insane goal of 2011 (and 2012 and 2013 and maybe 2014) is to read my bookshelves.

Your turn to count. How many books would you have to read per week if you chose to read your bookshelves in 2011? (Hint: subtract the books you've read in the last year. You don't need to read those again so soon.)

My purpose with this goal is to

a) learn more about all the subjects and genres I've been drawn to throughout the years,

b) complete the gaps in my public school education, particularly in math, economics, and history,

c) dissuade myself from spending oodles and oodles of my husband's hard-earned cash on shiny new books (oh, I'll still buy a few, but probably not nearly as many as in 2010).

First up: TWENTY books on motherhood, childcare, and developmental psychology. Yeah, I've got three shelves to go before I get to the middle grade fiction shelf, but that will be a compelling carrot for this crazy horse.

How many books on your shelf have you read? How many do you actually want to read? Take inventory and let me know in the comments below.