With snow finally on the ground, it now officially feels like winter. I tend to read pretty steadily throughout the year, but I always feel like I will accomplish more indoors sorts of activities in winter rather than summer. I suppose it is for this reason my public library holds its annual Reading Club for adults in winter. Last year was the first time I participated in the program. I admit I fudged a bit as I joined halfway through, and I chose only slim novels to read for my required five. In return I received a very cool "Omaha Reads" mug with a logo and design from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (my library is going to be taking nominations for the next "Omaha Reads" book--maybe I should think of a book to suggest...).
This year I am going to try and choose a few books to coincide with other books I have already planned on reading (to try and avoid a towering stack of current reads like before!). The Reading Matters book group will be reading By the Lake by John Mcgahern. And A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle is the January book for Our Coffee Rings book club. I also still have The Burning Time by Robin Morgan and Edna O'Brien's The Light of Evening checked out but as yet unread (I am nothing if not tenacious with those library books--four possible renewals means I can stare at them for several months at home before admitting defeat and taking them back...). That leaves one more book I can browse for when I next visit the library (hopefully this week sometime). The program runs from January 2 through February 28.
My problem is trying to juggle all the things I want to read that seem to need to be read all at once! I am afraid I am not doing terribly well with the From the Stacks challenge. Only one book finished (Persuasion), but two others started and one (Fingersmith by Sarah Waters) waiting in the wings. That may be the best I can do. I hope I can manage all five books I chose (though I may mess around with my selections again) for the Winter Classics challenge. I have The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas just waiting for me to begin. That just leaves the next Slaves of Golconda book, The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz. Hmm. Now I feel as though I need a flow chart to keep track of all this. I'm not sure how many I will actually work my way through (thankfully some of them are for February as well), but January is always a long, dreary month, so it will be fun trying.