In the past few weeks, I’ve gotten strangely attached to the website, GoodReads.

People have been telling me for the longest time to get on this website and I never really understood the point of it. It never appealed to me, even though I’m the biggest reader of them all.

But, people continue to ask me all the time how many books I read in a week, a month, a year…and I honestly have no answer for that. I’ve never sat down and counted that. So starting November 1st, I started recording each book that I finished.

And then I really, really discovered GoodReads and I can’t get off that website. Its brilliant! Authors are on it and its a great way to keep track of them and their various news and blogs. Its a fantastic way to keep track of books that I’ve read, books that I’m reading and books I want to read. Its cool to see what my friends are reading, and what they think of the books they are reading because I trust a lot of their judgements.

I mean, I received a TON of gift cards for Christmas, including 75 dollars to Barnes and Noble. And the best thing was, I walked into B&N and pulled up my “to-read” list on my GoodReads app and basically bought the first seven books on the list.

Its amazing!

Then as soon as the new year hit, I saw the Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge.

Apparently its a challenge done yearly, and its where you can create a challenge for yourself, on how many books that you read in a year.

And I think that’s pretty fantastic. I was browsing through the list and the goals were anywhere from 5 books to up in the 200s. Thats seriously fantastic. Everyone should read and even if your goal is to read ONE book this year, thats okay, because it could be one more than you did the year before. And GoodReads is a nice environment to start that sort of goal. You can find books you may like, you have friends to encourage you and so on.

I set a goal of 200 books this year. I have no idea if that’s insane, or too low or anything. I have no idea how many books I honestly read in a year. I guess this is a good way to find out. And its a good way to try and reach a goal.

So I encourage all of my followers (all five of you, or four, or three or a hundred because I honestly have no idea who reads this) to try this out. Like I said, even if its only ONE book thats your goal this year…at least you’re picking up a book and reading it.

Because books are important, stories are important. I have no idea what my life would be like if I didn’t have books in my life. So click the link below and sign up. You won’t regret it!

GoodReads 2013 Challenge

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