2013 Reading Challenge

I see it has been over a year since my last post!  The last "Why Buy the Cow" reading challenge was a bust-- I do NOT read well online.  I am an excellent online skimmer and scanner but find it nigh impossible to get down to serious reading on an electronic device.  Could be I'm a tactile person, but I think it more likely I am a creature of habit.  After a several-decade-long love affair with books, how could I make the switch to reading on a screen?  I see the advantages of course-- faster access to more books, ability to easily carry a library with me wherever I go...but still.....  books-- the feel of the covers, the smell of the pages, the act of turning one over to slowly view words on the next page, the sheer pleasure of going into bookstores and coming out with new treasures........ there is no substitute!

Goodreads.com-- finally one of my 'resolutions' has been carried through on.  I have kept up my reading lists on this sight faithfully for the past 6 months.  i read too many books to remember titles of some for long and just seeing the book cover or title in the list on my 'shelf' helps keep them in accessible memory.  And hopefully it will help prevent me from buying the same books twice.
There is a yearly reading challenge through the site.  last year I did not make it through successfully  (well, I think I did but the problem was I couldn't remember  most of the titles I read while on holiday in the US in order to record them on Goodreads). This year my goal is to read 100 books.  I have a good start already.  The only thing that could slow me down is a really GOOD book. Some books are so well-written I just want to savor every sentence, roll the words across my tongue and let their tang linger.  These I read slowly.  The general novel I breeze through like a story junkie.  No matter how busy my schedule gets, I can't NOT read every day.

I've also discovered that a former student has opened a coffee business-- he imports, procures, and roasts his own beans.  Ahhhhhhhhh...... I have had a taste of the REAL Blue Mountain coffee from Jamaica (absolute heaven!) and beans from other parts of the world as well.  Each time I go, my student educates me on another piece of the process of coffee and the art of coffee.  So this past month as I sit to read, I have by my side an aromatic cup of Costa Rican freshly ground coffee from beans roasted while i watched.  I could read (and sip my java) all day long.