A new year is once again upon us, and it is time to start year eight of the goal to read a book a week for the entire year, totaling 52 books in 52 weeks.  In year one, I only made it to 8 books.  Year two doubled that total.  Year three used graphic novels to improve once again, finishing with 24.  Year four was the first where I dropped from the year before, only finishing 18 books, which was well short of the ultimate goal.  Three years ago, I bounced back to finish with 23 books.  Two years ago, I had my best year since starting this challenge, not to mention my best reading year ever, finishing with 31 books.  Last year, I matched that high point in total books, though far surpassing it in total pages read thanks to reading the entire Harry Potter series.

I’m going to give it another go this year.  I’ve got a few new books loaded in the Kindle app on my iPad, plus a few new purchases from Amazon, not to mention birthday and Christmas presents, so I’ve got a good pile to start with.  As a reminder, the rules I am using are:

• You can count a book as read as long as you have completed the book in 2017 and at least 50% of that reading takes place in 2017
• Any book counts as long as you’re not embarrassed to count it.
• Poetry collections do indeed count.
• Re-reading a book is okay as long as it isn’t done this year. (Reading Twilight twice in 2010 only counts as 1 read)
• Audiobooks also count.

My first book of the year looks like it will be A Bloody Storm, the third part of Richard Castle’s Derrick Storm novellas.  All told, 2017 should be another good year.