Just 50?
Okay, so far this year I've read:
Split Second - Alex Kava
A Cold Heart - Jonathan Kellerman
Show of Evil - William Diehl
If I get into a really good book that I'm enjoying, I just tend to shut out the world and keep going till I'm done. And I tend to read well into the small hours of the morning when Stuart's working a night shift. And, being retired, I have all the time in the world to read whenever I want to...so I probably have an unfair advantage or two.
I have a huge pile of books here in the office that I gathered from a very successful raid on my favourite charity bookshop and Christmas and early birthday presents, so I expect I'll have gotten to 50 by summer at the latest! If not much sooner.
And I definitely can't buy 50 books LOL.
Jen, do you have a charity store nearby? I was in the same fix, always struggling for something to read, until I found a wonderful local charity store at the start of last year which has a ton of secondhand books for sale and they kept me supplied all year round. I visited every six weeks or so and ended up always having a book beside the sofa. I've been in book heaven all year!
On my last visit, at the start of December, I had my most successful visit yet, coming out with 32 books! At 50p a paperback/£1 a hardback, it's great value for money (I'm sure your prices would be similiarly cheap) and you have the added bonus of knowing you're contributing to a good cause.
And one of the other bonuses is that you get introduced to a ton of new authors in the genres you enjoy that you never knew were out there. Or find yourself able to revisit old genres you once read but have drifted away from. I'm enjoying picking up the odd historical novel here and there, for example. I used to read this kind of thing in my teens but haven't for years. But reading books like Joanne Harris's
Holy Fools or Rosalind Laker's
To Dance With Kings has been a real, rediscovered pleasure.
You get more adventurous, too, I find. I've picked up books I might not have chanced if I was buying them new, but which don't seem so much of a risk when it's only 50p, and surprised myself by enjoying them immensely.
LabRat
