Book 1: Listful Thinking by Paula Rizzo

As is probably obvious from this blog, I am a big fan of lists! So when a friend mentioned this book on twitter about a year ago, I bought it and promptly forgot all about it. /o\ But I'm glad this challenge got me to read it finally!

This book is a bit scattershot, for me. I didn't know before reading it if it was going to be an examination of why people like making lists, or an organizational self-help book on how to write better lists and Live Your Best Life, and the answer is that it's both and neither at the same time. The analysis of why people make lists was fairly shallow, and while I found some of the list making tips helpful, most of them seemed pretty self-evident to me. And as always with list writing advice for the office, it would be nice to be able to only focus on my pre-determined to-do list for a day, but in practice it's never possible (at least not for me). So I spent a bit of time rolling my eyes at that sort of advice.

Having said that, one kind of list that the book did delve into more deeply is the checklist, the sort that surgeons use before each surgery to make sure they have everything ready and pilots use before takeoff. I like the idea of applying those kinds of checklists to recurring work projects I have, because I definitely spend more time than I need to reinventing the wheel whenever I start a new project. As much as I'd love for writing out lists to be something that magically controls the entire world and prevents any outside forces from affecting my ability to cross off everything, I know that's not realistic. But creating lists that free up mental space and make it easier to handle unanticipated additions to my day seems like the best of both worlds, a way to be both productive and flexible when I need to change course. Ideally I'd like my list writing habit to help me keep my life in order so that when I want to be spontaneous everything doesn't fall apart as a result.

The book also made me want to take another look at Evernote, an app I've had forever but haven't used frequently enough to really appreciate, I think. The book suggested a bunch of other apps as well, but nothing that jumped out at me.

Overall, I think this was a book that didn't quite know what it wanted to do, and while there were a couple of good observations and suggestions, I don't know if this is a book that will either fully satisfy the dedicated list maker or make a believer out of a novice.

Grade: C

2016 Master List

EDITED: So this is now the list of 98 books I read between March 24, 2016 and December 31, 2016. It's not all of the books I read in 2016, because I didn't include any of the books I read in the first three months of the year (or any of my rereads), but it's everything I read as a part of this project, with links to all of the corresponding posts. 

Here is the list of the 132 books I am attempting to read between now and November 8th! The first 106 books on the list are fiction, which means that a little less than a quarter of the books are nonfiction, so I will be planning to read about one nonfiction book a week. In addition, 33 of the books are marked with a W notation after them; I expect to need a week (at least) of reading time to finish each of those books, so when figuring out what to read next, I'll need to balance steady progress on those bigger/more challenging books with daily reading of faster books. The good news is that there's enough variety in the list that I should always be able to find something I'm in the mood for on any given day; the bad news is that's because there are SO MANY BOOKS TO READ. However, I'm feeling very optimistic as I get started! Let's see how long that positive thinking lasts :D

I will be updating this post as I make my way through the list and marking books when I've finished them. There is no rhyme or reason to the order of the books beyond fiction 1-106 and nonfiction 107-132.

List of books is under the cut!

A Perfectly Normal Response to the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

There hasn't been much press coverage about this, but apparently there's a presidential election this year in the United States! I know, I also was shocked when I realized this, because it has in no way dominated the national conversation for months, even though the general election isn't until November 8th. Not to worry though, because I'm sure that the 230 days between now and Election Day will pass by easily and peacefully and we'll all be free from constant anxiety and fear that the U.S. could do something REALLY DUMB like elect Donald Trump as President.

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So listen. I can't control what happens in this election beyond canvassing and contributing to the Get Out The Vote campaign of whichever Democratic nominee wins the party's nomination and then voting for him or her on November 8th (along with the down ballot Democratic nominees in my state and city). But what I CAN attempt to control is how I spend the next eight months of my life, and how quickly the time passes. Barring the ability to put myself into a coma-like stasis until November 9th and waking up to discover that the country did in fact vote for four more years of a president who doesn't terrify me, my best bet is to give myself incredibly ambitious deadlines for projects that only matter to me, for pride. Because I don't know about anyone else, but nothing makes time go by faster for me than a looming deadline staring me in the face.

I have a couple of different projects in the pipeline to get me through this year, but the one this blog focuses on is BOOKS. I currently have 132 unread books in my possession, either in paper or e-book form. There are 230 days between now and Election Day 2016, or just a bit short of 33 weeks. My goal over the next 33 weeks is to read all 132 of those books, or four books per week.

This is ambitious but also possible: I am a fast reader, and at least 40 of those books are novellas or romance novels or YA novels, all of which I can read at a much faster clip than nonfiction or many other kinds of novels. However, a fair number of them are also books which will be more or less impossible for me to read in less than a week, given that I have a full-time job and am also working on writing my own novel this year. (We all deal with stressful national elections in our own special ways, okay.) So each week I'll need to read both shorter, faster books over a day or two while also chipping away at longer and/or more challenging reads.

I am also giving myself permission to stop reading any book after a hundred pages if I'm not enjoying it; the purpose of this challenge is to get through my to-read pile, not to punish myself for a book I bought years ago and have never read. I will also be reviewing each book I read (or abandon) and giving them a letter grade.

Also, the starting point of 132 books already includes seven books that haven't been released yet but which I know I will be buying and reading, but the odds that I will go eight months without buying unanticipated additional books are as low as I hope the GOP's odds of winning this November are. Hopefully I can limit the number of additional books bought, or keep a book wishlist and then go on a huge buying spree post-Election Day to celebrate :D

I think that's it! Tomorrow I'll be posting the list of all 132 books I will be attempting to read between now and November 8th, and after that I'll need to get reading. /o/