Page Goals, Christmas Goodies, and 2012

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, Kwanza, or Hanukkah! For Christmas this year, Matt couldn't get much time off work so we stayed curled up in our little North Dakota apartment and celebrated with just the two of us, which was really nice. Next year, we're hoping to get more time off to spend the holidays with family.

Christmas was wonderful, though. And...in bookish news, Matt's parents bought us a Kindle Fire! We're so excited to use it! Matt doesn't read, so he'll likely only use it while traveling. I haven't officially surrendered to the idea of ebooks, but this is my chance to test it out.

Here's what I've downloaded so far:
Life of Pi by Yann Martel (I never did read this when it was consistently on the Bestseller's list)
Life From Scratch by Melissa Ford
Single in the City by Michelle Gorman (gifted to me by author for review)
Inconvenient Love by Elizabeth Lashaun
Colin Preston Rocked and Rolled by Bert Murray

None of these books were more than $.99 To be honest, it makes me nervous that I've purchased three of these books in just 2 days. My bookshelf already has too many unread novels on it (159, to be exact). I can't afford to continue with this book hording! Why can't I read faster?!?!?

I also got two autographed books from Matt, both of which I'm really looking forward to reading:

Dart is Phil Rustad's first book and is set in Minneapolis, but travels throughout. His second, Alamo North Dakota, takes place in said town. Alamo is located just 40 miles away from where I'm at, so the author did a book signing at our local bookstore. I'm looking forward to reading these two thriller/suspense novels!

Alright, that covers Christmas goodies. Now for Page Goals:

I was inspired by an incredible boss several years ago to set a New Year's goal for the number of pages to read. What a great idea! I used to create goals based on the number of books, but I'd find myself discriminating against books based on how many pages they had. Anyway, for 2011 I chose (with your help, readers!) a page goal of 12,500. And I surpassed it last week, with the completion of Sandra Brown's White Hot. In 2011, I have completed 13,052 pages, surpassing my goal by 552 pages. Yay!

This page count came from 38 books.
Here's a summary of all my books by month completed:

January 2011 (1,973 pages)
Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen
Who Moved my Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, M.D.
Into the Wild by John Krakauer
One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell
Sam's Letters to Jennifer by James Patterson
Literacy and Longing in L.A. by Jennifer Kaufman & Maren Mack
5th Horseman by James Patterson

February 2011 (no books)

March 2011 (532 pages)
House Rules by Jodi Picoult

April 2011 (891 pages)
When the Wind Blows by James Patterson
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Montana 1948 by Larry Watson

May 2011 (959 pages)
Black Notice by Patricia Cornwell
The Help by Kathryn Stockett

June 2011 (718 pages)
1984 by George Orwell
The Killing Hands by P.D. Martin

July 2011 (1,810 pages)
The Brick Layer by Noah Boyd
Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella
What Looks like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage
Seven Year Switch by Claire Cook
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

August 2011 (1,490 pages)
Seeing me Naked by Liza Palmer
The 6th Target by James Patterson
The Last Juror by John Grisham
Exposed by Ashley Weis

September 2011 (1,058 pages)
Indelible by Karin Slaughter
Bed Rest by Sarah Bilston
Commandant of Auschwitz by Rudolf Hoess
The Shack by William Paul Young

October 2011 (1,998 pages)
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
An Emergency in Slow Motion by William Todd Schultz
The Sleepwalkers by Paul Grossman
Demons in the Age of Light by Whitney Robinson
Cujo by Stephen King
Envy by Sandra Brown

November 2011 (no books)

December 2011 (1,622 pages)
I'd Know you Anywhere by Laura Lippman
Wishin' and Hopin' by Wally Lamb
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
White Hot by Sandra Brown

For my 2012 page goal, I let you, my readers, vote for one of the following three options:
14,000
15,000
16,000

Seven votes were cast and the winner is...drumroll...15,000 pages won by one vote! I will begin working toward that goal starting at Midnight on January 1st.

Speaking of next year... (is this getting too long? I promise this next section is shorter)

I'm sure you've all noticed that I've been getting more and more books for review. Here's my TBR stack of said books:

I'm so eager to get to all of these novels (including the sticky note squished in between Behind the Beautiful Forevers and Proof of Heaven, which reminds me to read Single in the City on my Kindle) and am confident there will be more on the way throughout the year. I thought about taking a picture of my overflowing bookshelves as well, but it's way too messy and might scare some of you. I'm hoping to get lots and lots of reading done next year, perhaps beyond my 15,000 page goal if I can. I'll need to average 1,250 pages a month in order to reach the 15,000 page goal.

However; I start on my Master's degree on January 9th. I will be attending school online part-time and continuing to work full-time. I'm hoping to squish in as much time as possible to continue all of my hobbies (including reading), but please, be patient with me. It may very well end up being a situation where I only read on my "breaks" from college. :/

I appreciate all of you who have continued to support me in my blogging and book reviews. I wish everyone a happy New Year and will post again soon!