I decided to do my own reading goals this year.

Personal Reading

1. Read 166 books - I decided to up the number of books read. 166 is one-third of my TBR pile. Still doable as long as I don't get into any reading slumps. Most of the fiction books will come straight off my TBR mountain - I will use the library to complete my reading challenges for Austen and Steinbeck and keep up with the ...In Death series. Also, I want at minimum 55 books to be non-fiction, although I would like to see a 50/50 mix of non-fiction and fiction.

2.  Continue the Jane Austen Reading Challenge (7 books total, 1 completed, 1 currently reading) - Current pace is one book every other month.

        A. Pride and Prejudice (completed)

        B. Sense and Sensibility (currently reading)

        C. Northanger Abbey (January 2016)

        D. Mansfield Park (March 2016)

        E. Persuasion (May 2016)

        F. Lady Susan (July 2016)

        G. Emma (September 2016)

3. Courtney Milan Reading Challenge (10 books total) - One book per month and I can be done by autumn.

         A. The Carhart Series (3) January - March 2016

         B. Brother Sinsters Series (7) April - October 2016

4. Read the Harry Potter series (7 books) - if I can get through that first book this time around (stopping point the first time I tried to read it was 30 pages in), I know I can get through (and maybe enjoy) the entire series.

5. Women in Military Reading List: I developed this list after reading 4 non-fiction books about women in the US military.

6. Continue John Steinbeck Reading List: So far I have read 2 novels but I would like to read 5 more of his work in 2016. I will read Steinbeck in the months I don't read Austen.

7. Read 4-6 classics. This will not include any works of Steinbeck's or Austen's. I am hoping to get to two of Elizabeth Gaskell's novels sitting on my TBR pile and Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast. I would like at least one novel to be from a POC/WOC, so if you got suggestions, please let me know in the comments!

8. Frank Sinatra at 100 Reading List: Today marks Sinatra's 100th birthday. Going to spend the year with my favorite solo artist.

Reading Related Goals

9. Continue to blog here about books.

10. I would like to do more bookish traveling. Maybe go to famous book stores or take literary walking tours. I have never been to the British Library - a fact of my life I will correct this year, even if I go by myself! Trying to expand my bookish interests to go beyond books. I do plan on attending the London Book Fair 2016 in April, although I am not sure I will go all three days.

11. I am also looking to volunteer more with my local libraries (two base libraries and my local British one). This will only work around my hubby's work schedule and my schooling, but I think it's doable. I plan on keeping my weekly date with the kids to go to Story Time.

12. Keep working on my manuscript that I started with NANOWRIMO 2015. I was solidly writing for about the first 10 days, then haven't touch it since. I felt the goal of writing 1,667 words every day was sucking the fun out of writing my story.

I didn't think it would be long before the candy bowl coughed up another Steinbeck for me to read. 

I don't know anything about this book, but it looks to be a fairly short read which is probably a good thing after the doorstopper that is The Goldfinch. 

However, I probably won't be starting it tonight as I think there may be a hockey game I have to watch. 

"We was drunk," Joad said softly. "Drunk at a dance. I don' know how she started. An' then I felt that knife go in me, an' that sobered me up. Fust thing I see is Herb comin' for me again with his knife. They was this here shovel leanin' against the schoolhouse, so I grabbed it and smacked 'im over the head. I never had nothin against Herb. He was a nice fella. Comes a-bullin' after my sister Rosasharn when he was a little fella. No, I liked Herb."

Joad took the last of the rabbit from the wire and passed it around. He settled back and ate more slowly now, chewed evenly, and wiped the grease from his mouth with his sleeve. And his eyes, dark and half closed, brooded as he looked into the dying fire. "Ever'body's goin' west," he said. "I got me a parole to keep. Can't leave the state."

from The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 

The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

I have to admit, my heart sank when I picked this one out of the candy bowl as my next read.

It's not that I don't like Steinbeck. I read a few of his other works at school and enjoyed them, but I do know the story of The Grapes of Wrath, so I know it's not going to be the most cheerful of reads. 

However, the wonderful descriptive writing is amazing. I'm only three chapters in and already I'm wanting to hold a handkerchief to my face to stop me from breathing in the dust. 

For someone who went to school in England, I read an awful lot of American literature while I was there. No complaints though. I still enjoy reading Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Harper Lee and Arthur Miller. 

But the writer who seemed to be a particular favourite of my teachers was John Steinbeck. I remember reading The Red Pony and The Pearl which were fairly quick reads, but I also recall studying Of Mice and Men.  I didn't read any of his other novels though and always meant to remedy that. But being a bit of a lazy moo, I never got round to it..

Many years later, just before I moved to the States I was browsing a discount bookstore and came across a package of ten Steinbeck novels for ten pounds. A bargain!  They have remained on my shelves untouched, but when I was listing them for my Booklikes shelf, I thought this is the perfect opportunity to set myself a reading challenge and read all ten of them.  And seeing as 2014 is the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Grapes of Wrath, it makes it even more appropriate. 

So here they are.  My ten Steinbeck novels. I'm looking forward to re-reading some old favourites and hopefully discovering some new ones.