Somebody Jump-Start Me, Please

For some reason I can't pin down, it's taking me longer than usual to get back into regular posting this year. Maybe I just got exceptionally lazy with all the vacation days I saved up for the end of December, but it's not as if I quit reading.  I already, in fact, have two really good novels under my belt for 2012. It's more, I think, a case of being overwhelmed by the number of reviews (5) that I need to catch up on...plus all the great football match-ups that have been televised in the last ten days, eating heavily into my free time.

 I decided against posting specific reading goals for 2012 because I didn't even come close to reaching my 2011 and 2010 goals. I'll just aim, in general terms, for consistency in the number of books I read during the new year and, more importantly, in the quality of my choices - especially when it comes to accepting review copies.  2011 was the best year I can remember in a long time regarding my selection of Advance Reader Copies - with only a dud or two among the 63 I read.

 I do seem to have reached a steady rhythm of sorts in the last three years: 123 books read in 2009, 124 in 2010, and 127 in 2011. I doubt that I could have been that consistent had it been a conscious goal of mine to do so. One more goal that's always in the back of my mind is to make some real progress on my huge TBR stack - but I can't remember the last year I didn't end up with more books in the stack than I started with. Maybe, by signing up for C.B.'s TBR Double Dare challenge, this will be the year I can make it happen.   This is going to be an extremely busy month at the office, but I'm hopeful that I wll find the time for a review or two soon. So, ready or not (and it's obviously "not" in my case, let's get started on 2012.