After pirating one of Miss Nobody's ideas for her 24th year I'm happy to say that I'm on the path to accomplishment.

When MN turned 24 she made a list of 24 goals she wanted to accomplish this year. Being as productive a person as I always am I decided to have one goal for my 24th birthday and I stole it from her. It's quite a simple goal but it's one I'm very happy with. It's reading 24 books this year. (Thanks, Al, for this idea). So, I finished my first book, The Da Vinci Code. I know, I know, you're a little late, Islandgirl, but hey, trends take a long time to come to this Island (that's a really poor excuse but that's why this goal is SO perfect).

I have stacks of books everywhere in my room. They collect a lot of dust but one day I have the vision of building my own library in my own house- whenever that will be I never know. Speaking of building libraries, I just interviewed a man who LOVES to keep himself busy and built his own library. I think I recall him saying if he was forced to sit down and read any of the books in his library he'd stay up until the early morning hours just to finish it because he can't stand just sitting around reading for leisure. Now, that's productivity. So instead he builds things. But I've completely gotten off the subject here.

What I'm trying to decide is the next book I should read. When I was little I would pull out several books that I hadn't read yet and I would read the first paragraph of the first chapter. I would narrow it down to two from there and then hide them behind my back and ask my mom to chose a hand. Very democratic, of course. Now, I have SO many books that I can't even begin to sit down and read the beginning of each chapter.

Here's the shortlist of books that I think I'm in the mood to read:

Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
The Orchid Thief Susan Orlean <-she also wrote a really good cookbook for dogs called Throw Me A Bone
Buffalo Soldier Chris Bohjalian
Atonement Ian McEwan
or
Vile Bodies Eveyln Waugh

I could always stop procrastinating and instead of reading during my 'minutes' of downtime study Spanish since I am going to Argentina in 7 weeks. But, I find, as I'm sure most people do, that variety is what keeps me productive. I can't just tell myself that every time I have some time to spare that I have to study Spanish or I'll revolt and instead watch television all night. But if I'm able to dabble in a couple of things then I'm more likely to keep with it. So, this week's goal is to decide what book to read. In the meantime, I'll read a magazine!