August. It seems like we were just talking about the beginning of summer, and here it is now August. It now means that school is just around the corner, and with school comes the extracurricular activities. Soccer for both kids, the continuation of piano lessons, my daughter wants to start ballet lessons, my son wants to join the school band. In addition, I committed to the first two parts of the Certified Management Accountant (CMA) exam for the second week of September and the second to last week in October. Eek! I’m hoping that all of these practices will give me plenty of time to study and still squeeze in some reading. As soccer practices start on Tuesday, we shall see.
Considering it was the first week back from vacation, I was surprisingly not swamped at work, but obviously my available time for reading was hampered by work itself. I did manage to stay ahead on The Brothers Karamazov. I also finished Pat Conroy’s latest, South of Broad, as well as re-read Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games. Also, I finally finished a book for a professional development program I am in at work, Be Your Own Brand by David McNally and Karl D. Speak. All three of those books will have reviews posted some time this week.
Next week, I hope to continue staying on top of the reading schedule for The Brothers Karamazov. Next week’s milestone includes the section where I continually lose interest. I liken it to “The Monologue” from Atlas Shrugged, except this one is roughly fifty pages on religion versus a world philosophy. I also hope to finish my first random book for the Random Book Challenge, Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. I also plan to finish one more book for the professional development program, Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton. As long as I stay on my self-imposed reading schedule, I feel pretty confident that I will be able to finish it all plus start a new one. Of course, at least one of those books will have to be put down if I receive the sequel to The Hunger Games from my dear friend Stephenie this week. She was going to send on her ARC to me. Once I get that, all bets are off on reading lists. Re-reading the first in the series last night clinched that decision for me.
It appears that August means being busy again. This week should be a good test for me to see how much I can get done and balance studying with reading. I’m hoping it won’t be too bad. We shall see.
Happy reading, everyone!
Wow, it does certainly sound busy in your household at the moment! Well done to you for squeezing in the reading time 🙂
Enjoy the reading! I quite liked Year of Wonders when I read it recently. I'm more than a little jealous that you'll be recieving Catching Fire though!
@debnance – Well, I read during my lunch break and after the kids go to bed. My TV time has dwindled down to zero lately as well. And, I read until the wee hours of the morning most of the time. And I've started balancing out the reading a bit. Like for my book club, if I know I have to read ten chapters by next week, I've started breaking it up to a few chapters a day. This is the same for the book for work that I need to read this week. It seems to be working and definitely breaks it up into doable chunks. Then, I can read something else I want to read without feeling guilty. I'm still testing out this policy, but it seems to be working so far!
I'm quite impressed that you are able to get so much reading done with your job and your kids!
I don't remember reading that much when I was raising kids. 🙁
I hear you! I figure that reading is our break, whether it is for work or for pleasure, required or not. It's the only time that I'm doing something that I truly, from the bottom of my heart love to do. I love to cook, I love to play with my kids, I love to exercise – but I LOVE to read. It defines who I am because it is such a pivotal part of my life. SO, as long as I can find 30 minutes to read a day, I figure that's all the break I need. It might make for a really boring blog though…
I'm actually really excited to send this to you. I can't WAIT for you to read it. Then we can chat about it!!
I know what you mean about the summer. I posted this same sort of thing today. Seriously, where is the time going?? It just seems to be flying by!
Chad starts football this week, and the girls are both in soccer, which will start in a few weeks. Lord, is there ever a time for a break?