Book 2 of 52: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

This is actually the book that made me decide to get back into writing in my blog.  It was a thought provoking book, but probably not for any of the reasons the author intended.  After reading it I felt like I needed to rage and storm to someone... a week later and the violent reaction has left me, but I still feel like I need to share my side of the story.

Let me start off by saying that this book was the perfect book to read after Anna Karenina.  It was everything Anna Karenina wasn't--it was short, thought provoking, and had a very limited cast of characters.  I read it in one day (and I even went to work for 8 hours that day)!

Let me also say, that this book has a great message.  Long story short, this book is an allegory about the importance of finding and fulfilling your life's work.  What I like about this message is that the author recognizes that not everyone's life work is something big and grand and he says so fairly directly.  Sometimes people get it into your head that if you are a mother and a homemaker you must have unfulfilled dreams.  That may be true for some people, but for other people, being a wife and homemaker is fulfilling all their dreams.

Now that I have all of that out of the way, I have to get into my beef with this book.  Part of the premise of the book is that those who are striving to fulfill their life's work stand a much greater chance of having their heart broken because they have more emotionally invested in their work compared to those who are just slogging through life.  I believe this is a true concept, which is why this book bugged me.

For me, there is nothing more satisfying than finding some little gem in a book.  I feel about reading the same way other people feel about running or starting a new business and succeeding in it.  You could almost say that my life's work is to read all the best books in the world (I'm quite aware that this is impossible in this life, but that's why I'm hoping that if I'm really good Heavenly Father will call me to work in that big library I feel quite certain exists in heaven).  This book is an allegory, but it's a very thinly veiled allegory.  Unlike The Chronicles of Narnia which are enjoyable whether you read them as a child's fantasy novel or an allegory of the history of the world, The Alchemist is only enjoyable if you agree with the author's message.

As a result, I was a little disappointed when I finished the book.  Sure, I felt like I had gained something useful, but I can think of half a dozen novels whose messages will stick with me for far longer due to the work I put into understanding the message.

Is it a book I'd recommend to people?  Absolutely.  I think it's a book worth reading and I think that most people aren't going to be bothered by the things that bothered me.  Would I ever want to own a copy of it?  Probably not.

Can you tell I'm anxious to get back into an English program?

Book 1 of 52: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Word to the wise, don't pick an 800+ page Russian novel to kick off a goal to read a book a week.  It will take longer than a week to read.  I heard a theory once that the reason Russian novels are so long is that the authors had all winter to write their books and the readers had all winter to read the books.  As a result, they could write incredibly complex, long novels and still sell them.  After reading this book I totally believe that theory.

It literally took me a month to finish this book.  Sure, I read the entire Percy Jackson series for one of the weeks in there, but really... it took me a month.  To be perfectly honest, it didn't really inspire me when I was reading it and it doesn't really inspire me now.  Maybe it's just that the bar was set too high.  Anna Karenina is one of those books that you always hear about in connection with Literature.  The kind you know you're supposed to read and think about and then write a 20 page paper about.  You imagine that you're going to learn the secret to life by reading this book because heck, if it's so thick it had better have the secret to life hidden in its pages. 

Unfortunately, I felt like this book was the opposite of everything that it was supposed to be.  The story dragged on and on.  I felt like the author was so busy telling the story that he couldn't go into any depth about what was going on--it was a mile wide and an inch deep.  As a result, I didn't feel like it raised any thought provoking questions.  I was just glad when the book ended and I could check it off my list.  I can now say I've read Anna Karenina.

Don't you hate it when books disappoint you like that?

2011 Reading Goals and an Update

Last year I had pretty ambitious reading goals for 2010.  I was going to read all the books I own that I hadn't read yet and read all the books on my to-read list that had been on there since before 2010.  I think I finished about 25% of my goals.  I read all the books that I owned, but then Andy brought all his books from his parents' house and I never got around to reading the ones he owned that I hadn't read yet (the entire Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites series).

And as for getting mostly caught up on my to-read list?  Well... let's just say it didn't happen... or come anywhere close to happening.  I am firmly stuck in 2008 (with a few leftovers from 2007).  Try as I might, reading over 100 books in one year is just too much for even me to handle.

So this year, I thought through my goals for reading before I made any.  I didn't set any grand goals to get completely caught up with my to-read list.  I didn't vow to read the entire College Board reading list (way too many books that don't look interesting).  Instead, I set what I think is a fairly achievable goal.

While at a recruiting dinner for my husband fall semester, I talked with the campus recruiter about books.  She mentioned that a few years ago a friend of hers challenged her to read a book a week and that she's kept that challenge ever since.  I was shocked.  Here I was complaining that I never had time to really read a book, when she was able to read a book a week with a super busy schedule.  I decided then and there that if she could do it, so could I.

So there you have it folks.  My goal for this year is to read a book a week.  Theoretically it's going to be the next 52 books on my Goodreads to-read list, but we'll see how that goes.  I'm already failing miserably, so if you want a bit of a challenge for yourself, I'd encourage you to join me.  If you can't commit to a book a week, try a book every two weeks, or a book every month.  You could pick a topic that you want to learn more about, read the classics, or just pick up books at random from the library shelves and read them.  You could read them on your computer, your Kindle, in paperback, or in hardback.  Whatever you do, just read.

What's your reading goal for 2011?