It's been a while...

Started book #25 today! Woohoo!

(though I guess it's really 24, since I never finished Eldest, but whatever... :P)

Finished Order of the Phoenix... finally! It's been hard finding the time to just sent down and push through any sort of reading lately. Now on to Half-Blood Prince... and I can finally start Deathly Hallows! It's taunting me in the next room. My sister is reading it, and doing a very good job honoring my "no spoilers! ;_;" request.

Also taking in bits of Bird by Bird here and there in an effort to motivate my inner writer. Should probably devote more time to finishing it, but it's hard to take on more than one at a time.

Other than that... once I get through Harry Potter, I think I'm going to start tackling some of those classics I never bothered to read in school. I was wandering through the bookstore today, making mental notes of those more literary selections I have never read. Of course, I keep leaning into the dystopian genre -- Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, and 1984 to name a few -- which doesn't really do much to broaden my speculative fiction geek horizons. But on the other hand, I'm intrigued by The Bell Jar, so there's some variety. Also made mental note of Don DeLillo's new book Falling Man... I was introduced to DeLillo with White Noise, in one of my college lit classes, and it's style, characters, and overall weirdness stuck with me well enough that I'd like to pull it out and read it again. This seems like it could be an interesting look at post 9/11 American culture.

So yeah... hoping to wax literary after I find out how the Potter saga ends. Wouldn't hurt to get through some smaller books... only 5 months to go, and I'm only halfway to 50! Ahh!

So...

I didn't meet the mini-goal. Whatever. I came close enough.

I also realized that if I can clear an average of 100 pages a day, I just might be able to finish The Order of the Phoenix and The Half Blood Prince just barely in time for the Deathly Hallows release date. That's a pretty big "if"... but I have a ridiculous need to attempt it.

At least I have 4 hours of backseat car trip time to work on it tomorrow. Let's give it a shot.