shiny sparkly books

I am having a problem settling down to read a book for the past two weeks.  I keep picking up one book, reading a few pages, then going to another one, then seeing another.......it's not that I'm not enjoying what I'm reading, on the contrary!  I'm enjoying every book on the go, from The Morville Hours, to In the Garden with Jane Austen, to Les Miserables, to The Winds of Marble Arch, to Women Food and God by Geneen Roth, to Smokin' Seventeen.  I want to read them all!  And they are all in progress!!!

 I think I have so many books that I want to read, that I can't find the one that says 'me' with that quiet voice, because it's too heavy to carry with me everywhere - Les Miserables. So I end up carrying other books or trying to find other books to read on the bus journey to and from work, which end up spilling over into my evenings.  This is good for my reading totals, but leaves me feeling a little distracted. Between library books and books that I keep looking at on my shelves, I am being distracted by shiny new books:

- Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
- River Marked - Patricia Briggs
- Hanging Wood - Martin Edwards
-  Raising Stony Mayhall - Daryl Gregory
 - Deadline - Mira Grant
- Hexwood - Diana Wynne Jones

These are books I've held in my hand, opened to page one.....then thought, no I have to finish something else.....usually a library book.  Then I go to the library books and try to finish one or two of them.  I feel like I have ADHD with books - every cover sparkles, and I open it, and then I get distracted by another, and another.....and I want to read them all!  Over at So Many Books blog, Stefanie described feeling something similar earlier this week, only hers were about library books.

I really am not complaining, I know I have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to new books to read.  I am thrilled I have so many. It does make me wonder though, Gentle Reader:
Do shiny new books distract you from your reading plan?  Does the cover of a book matter?  How about the feel of a book?

I ask this because I opened my copy of The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, and decided the print was too small, even though it's a Penguin classic.  I really want to read a classic soon, I'm behind on my own reading plan for this year.  At the bookstore last week, I came across another edition,  that when I held - I think it was New American Library paperback edition, and I loved it and started reading it in the store!  I wanted to buy it and hold it and read it.  But I already owned a copy, so I put it back, wistfully.

  It's the same reason that when I did hold Les Miserables later that night, I thought, 'yes!" It felt right in my hand, and I loved the feel of it, the paper, the cover, everything about it. If only it didn't weight over 5 pounds even as a softcover, I could carry it with me everywhere!

So I bought it, and have been enjoying reading it, though I find it distracting to have to put it down  and start another book for the bus to and from work because with my knees inflammed with osteoarthritis at the moment, any extra weight I carry really bothers them.  It's just too heavy with my lunch bag to take on the bus. So it stays at home and waits for me.

So, my questions on this lovely Saturday afternoon are: do you find that you need to read a book straight through to finish it?  Or can you pick one up, and then another, and another, and read several simultaneously?  And, do different editions matter?  Should I go and buy that other edition of The Mill on the Floss just because it felt so good in my hands, and I wanted to read it?  And, are you being distracted by new books vs library books, shiny new book covers, this spring?

Folktales to begin the new year, and the books I didn't read (again)

Books I Can't Wait for in the New Year
So there I was on Friday, looking through the Guardian book site on my lunch time at work.  This is always a dangerous thing to do, since I am always finding out about books I haven't read yet.  This is what happened

on Friday.

It's not out here until the beginning of January, but honestly, after reading in the Guardian this review by Neil Gaiman on this Alan Garner new book, who could resist this?  It looks so good, so perfect, a lovely way to begin the new year. 

Among Others by Jo Walton is out on Jan 3 in softcover.  I've been waiting 8 months for this.   All of you who've read it - Carl, Memory, Nymeth,  have loved it.  I so want to read it too!  Two weeks now, and counting......
 The House at Sea End by Elly Griffiths is also out in softcover Jan 3. I think I like this day already.  This is part of the ongoing Ruth Galloway series which I am really enjoying.

Since I don't own these yet, I thought I'd ask you, what books are you waiting for to come out in the new year?

Random thoughts from other people's blogs:
In news around the book blogging world, Carl has a wonderful post up on books he thought he would have read by now, and hasn't, and wants plans to read next year.  If you have some of your own (and I dare any book reader to not come up with a list of those!), let Carl know what they are.  My  post today is in answer to some of the questions he asked in his wonderful, thoughtful post.

Nymeth also has a wonderful post on books she wants to read as soon as they are out next year.  I've already checked out the Diana Wynne Jones book on writing, which Amazon sadly isn't even listing here yet.

****Edited to add: I had to get off the computer in a hurry as the children were waiting to use it to search for cheats for their Star Wars Wii game.  While I was off, I remembered I had read Care's lovely post about how she failed at reading certain books this year, and challenges, here.  So if you are like us, drop us a line so we don't feel quite so guilty alone about not being the kind of readers we think we should be.  It's all in fun, I know, both wanting to be more well-read, and the plans we make for reading.  It's awfully fun to cross books off the to-read list!!!*******

Some books I thought I'd read this year, and haven't:
Certainly I have books I thought I would have read by now - indeed, Ulysses is top of that list, since I started it last winter, and it languishes on my to be read pile, along with Samuel Pepys Diary, which I also really want to read, started two years ago, and then got sidetracked.  That's only two.  Any Charles Dickens this year - and I'd better finish A Christmas Carol this year, or I am in trouble with myself! **I just checked, and I now own 4 novels by Dickens, PLUS Drood by Dan Simmons, which I also haven't read.  Points finger at self: read Charles Dickens in 2012, Susan! I haven't read either of the annotated Jane Austens I picked up,  nor have I finished the House by The Thames by Gillian Tindall, which I started reading when I got it out of the library, went out and bought my own copy, and now it sits on the same shelf. I wonder if it's possible to have ADHD  when it comes to reading??? Kraken or Perdido Street Station by China Mieville.   I really can't believe I haven't read Boneshaker by Cherie Priest yet.   Or Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb - I have loved the other two series.  So how have I missed this series?  Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden. Oh, there is so much I planned to read this year and haven't yet!  The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Settlefield. A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan.

 Books I thought I'd read by now in my life, and haven't.  That's a harder question to answer.  Ulysses, certainly. Any novel by Ursula K LeGuin.  The Gentleman's Daughter by Amanda Vickery.  London the Biography by Peter Ackroyd. Bleak House by Charles Dickens.  Anything by Neal Stephenson - I own Cryptonomicon, Anathem, and Quicksliver.   Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A Heinlein.  I can't believe I haven't read Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist, when I loved the Swedish version of the movie so much that I bought it, and everyone who has read the book says it is one of the best vampire novels ever, and I loved  his Handling the Undead earlier this year.  I really can't believe I haven't read Boneshaker by Cherie Priest yet.    Anything by Anthony Trollope. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. War and Peace, on every 'I will read this year' list I've ever done. Emily Dickinson.

100 books?
So for the next week, I am setting some reading goals for 2012.  I've been looking at all the challenges surfacing, and thinking over joining some.  I did discover that I read more when I have lots of room for spontaneity.  While it's still in question if I will reach 100 books read this year - 10 books in 10 days, more or less....Christmas and New Year's in the midst of that......I remain optimistic that I will.  I already have had the best reading year in the past 15 years that I've been keeping a book list.  That is something, my friends, something indeed. So I am very proud of what I've accomplished, even if I might fall just short of my goal. My next post will be on the books I did manage to read this year and there are some that I am delighted I did get around to reading, and some new ones that thrilled me.

Meanwhile, Gentle Reader, let me know - are you happy with your reading year?  Is there anything you are really looking forward to coming out in 2012?

I hope you are finding some reading time today, on this Sunday before Christmas!