In past years I have considered myself a reader, though have only worked through about one book each month. The problem is that I do a lot of distracted reading online and was loosing touch with reading books, and long-form reading in general. Half way through May I decided that my new goal would be to read 50 books before the end of the year. While finishing all 50 by year end may be a bit ambitious, I hope to at least finish 50 before May 2009. So far I have enjoyed my reading quite a bit and have even started using the library again, something I have not done in ages. Thus far my reading has covered:

May
#1 Getting Real by 37signals
#2 Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
#3 The Long Tail by Chris Anderson

June
#4 The Fall of Reach by Eric S. Nylund
#5 The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
#6 In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
#7 The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
#8 My Tiny Life by Julian Dibbell

July
#9 Kill Zone by Jack Coughlin
#10 The Making of Second Life by Wagner James Au
#11 Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy
#12 Hobo by Eddy Joe Cotton
#13 Off The Page by Carole Burns

August
# 14 Code by Lawrence Lessig
# 15 The Halo Graphic Novel by Lee Hammock
# 16 The Elements of Style by William Strunk
# 17 Alter Ego by Robbie Cooper
# 18 Mass Effect: Revelation by Drew Karpyshyn
# 19 Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter
# 20 Gamer Theory by Mckenzie Wark

As it stands I'm on pace for about 40 by year end and 60 for a full year. Finding LT has been a real blessing. Not only do I get to enjoy keeping track of my progress, but I have started to find what genres interest me as I explore the recommendations!

This month had a bit of an athletics based theme to it. A running injury from bumping my mileage up too quickly had me doing a lot of swimming and reading up on my form. ChiRunning and Total Immersion proved to be excellent reads.

September
# 21 ChiRunning by Danny Dreyer
# 22 Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes
# 23 Becoming an Ironman by Kara Douglass Thom
# 24 Total Immersion by Terry Laughlin
# 25 Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
# 26 Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig
# 27 What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
# 28 Skunk Works by Ben R. Rich

There are a few more days left in the month, but I suppose if I should not finish one of the last two, or finish additional ones I can get them added in to October. Unfortunately, the last few months have been drawn almost exclusively from the library; this is not an inherently bad thing, but the pile of books I grabbed at a thrift store are gathering dust. This next month I am hoping to dig into these new booksand get them off the 'to be read' shelf.

I have to keep up a good pace of about 1.6 books per week to meet my goal of 50 by year end... hopefully my pile of huge Tom Clancy books does not hamper my good progress!

This month has been busy with books! It looks like making my goal of fifty before the end of the year is within easy reach.

# 29 The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks
# 30 The Mafia and the Machine by Frank Hayde
# 31 Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden
# 32 Lucky Wander Boy by D B Weiss
# 33 Free as in Freedom by Sam Williams
# 34 Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
# 35 Eastern Standard Tribe by Cory Doctorow
# 36 Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow
# 37 Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
# 38 I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
# 39 Just For Fun by Linus Torvalds
# 40 Dewey by Vicki Myron

All said, this months reading was largely enjoyable. I discovered Cory Doctorow's books were to my liking, and this next month I hope to add in a few more of his books to my reading. It is kind of cool to discover your first real favorite author.

A bit of a late update, but I'm glad to report that I'm slowly ticking off the final books toward 50.

# 41 Overclocked by Cory Doctorow
# 42 True Enough by Farhad Manjoo
# 43 Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town by Cory Doctorow
# 44 Mass Effect: Ascension by Drew Karpyshyn
# 45 Only a Theory by Kenneth R. Miller

As this is a few days late, I've already got one book completed, and three more open. This leaves me with:

# 46 This Gaming Life by Jim Rossignol
# 47 Soldier's Heart by Elizabeth Samet
# 48 The Art of War by Sun-Tzu
# 49 Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy

One more book to go and I've met my goal!