This year I signed up for the Goodreads 2011 Reading Challenge for 150 books. It started out that I set a goal for 60 books, but within four months I knew I would surpass that. Than I changed my goal to 100 books, and by July, I knew I'd pass that. So I took a look back over my 4-year membership with Goodreads and realized that I could probably read more books in 2011 than I have ever recorded reading: 150 books.

What was I thinking?

Apparently I wasn't thinking about grad school applications, or the writing conference I was helping plan, or that work always gets busiest at the end of the year, or my travel plans for the fall, or that I'd need to find a new apartment for the week before Christmas.

So now I look back at those 125 books that I've read this year. 125 books. And I think, "Wow, that's pretty impressive that I've read 125 books." And I still have three weeks to get some reading done. Maybe I won't make my goal, but the thing about ambitious goals is that the journey is often more rewarding than the destination.