Sunday Salon: OCD Book Frenzy

Ah, yes, the New Year is approaching.  Although I'm knee-deep in several good books (more on that later) I have my end of the year itch to observe my nerd-rituals involving books.  The last week of the year I spend my time reflecting on what I've read, challenges, and the reasoning behind my book choices.  Also, I like to think of where I want to go with my reading in the upcoming year.

Last week, I wrote about the slew of challenges I'm joining.  This week I have a few random reading goals and my blog review system in place.

~~~~~~~ WARNING ~~~~~~~

If you aren't as OCD as I am, this post will most likely bore the hell out of you.  Feel free to skip ahead.

First off, my blog format:
Book:
Title:
Author:
Org. publication date:
Edition/publication info:
Number of pages:
Challenge fulfillments:
Rating:
Overview:
Thoughts:
Yearly Stats:
Updated book count
Updated page count


Now, my 2010 reading goals:
1.  Review, or at least record, each book read using the format above.
This will keep my reviews nice and uniform.  It annoys me when each review is formatted differently.
2.  Read 75 books AND/OR 20,000 pages.
Even if I try not to worry about the number of books I read I'm just competive enough with myself to find myself caring.  Perhaps I might be prone to read more 800 page novels if I knew that it wouldn't make my book count low.
3.  Start tagging.
I haven't tagged in the past because I wanted to be systematic.  It bothers me when I discover I've tagged something with "comicbook" and then later on I see "Comic book."  Uniformity is what I crave.  I'm really going to put forth the effort this year to tag posts -- especially reading posts -- regularly.
4.  Update my bookjournal/TBR list/LibraryThing/and Goodreads as needed.
5.  Have a TBR post/wrap-up post every month.
For example, discussing what I read in January and what's on the table for February.
6.  Participate in one 24 read-a-thon.
I work every Saturday, so this will be difficult to do.
7.  Join my public library's Friends of the Library program.
8.  Participate in the Sunday Salon regularly.


Well, there you have it.  My wonderful bookish organizing.  Now if I could just resist making lists at every turn.

~~~~~~~ End of Bookish OCD stuff ~~~~~~~

So, what am I reading?  Right now I have two books going.  The first is Peter Ackroyd's latest, the Casebook of Victor Frankenstein, which imagines what would happen if Victor Frankenstein were a real person who intimately knew the Shelleys.  In the beginning of the book I was displeased.  There is a great deal of hoity-toity name dropping.  Now that I'm over 100 pages in I find that the book has picked up a great deal and I am enjoying it.  I think it is moving towards the thought that Mary Shelley didn't write Frankenstein and I don't like that idea at all.  We'll see what happens.

Secondly, I have the Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories.  With all the holiday bustle I find that my reading time is often broken up in bits here and there and short stories are perfect for reading when one doesn't have the time to plunge into a novel.  Thus far I've read 3 short stories:  "The Tapestried Chamber" by Sir Walter Scott, "The Phantom Coach" by Amelia B. Edwards, and "Squire Toby's Will" by J.S. Le Fanu.  Any hint of plot would ruin the stories, but let me tell you that each story has given me the willies.  Dark passages, family secrets, slow-turning doorknobs, wintery nights, etc... are all present and quite effective.  I look forward to scaring myself silly some more with this book of tales.