24 Festive Tasks: New Year's Eve

 Square Twenty-three

Book: Read a book about starting over, rebuilding, new beginnings, etc., or a book where things go "BOOM!", or with fireworks on the cover.

Dead Heat by Dick Francis and Felix Francis (read by Martin Jarvis)

Dick Francis's wife Mary was his partner in crime. After she died, son Felix stepped in as partner. Francis, pere et fils wrote four (maybe five) books together, of which this is the first to bear Felix's name.  Felix continued the franchise after his father's death in 2010 and has produced one book a year (same pace as his parents) ever since, each one of which has his father's name in the title (either Dick Francis's ___ or ___: A Dick Francis Novel ).  This particular one is one of my favorites among the titles that Felix has been involved in, not that I have been keeping up with what he has written.     

Task 1: Tell us: What are your reading goals for 2021?

My reading goals are, as always: 100 books, 1500 hours including  5 history, a couple of science titles and some things to "expand my horizons." One hundred is a nice round number even though I know that I will read close to double that number. I haven't changed my goal for a couple of years now because 100 books was an even calculation on the Booklikes yearly reading challenge progress bar. Even with BL out of the picture, I'm not motivated to change the numbers. I'm also looking forward to another round of games -- BLopoly and 24 Festive Tasks in particular. They both really help fill up my reading calendar with things I might not otherwise read. Other than that I enter the year with a fairly blank slate and no idea where my reading will take me in 2021.

Task 2: Your 2020 reading year in review: How was it? All told, are you satisfied / happy or not? What worked – and what didn’t?

While it had its ups and downs, it looks like I will have managed to read at least 200 books this year -- close to half of them will be new titles. I read what I like and if I don't like I won't read it. I'm picky. Each year, I have less and less inclination to read "the classics" but that that does not mean that I dislike old books. Still I read what for me is a wide variety of books and authors this year. In fact, this is the first year in 3 or 4 that I did not make it completely through my "annual re-read" cycle of Francis, Heyer and Shute. Blame it on Audible's new PLUS CATALOG of free reads -- unabridged editions of a wide range of authors. Over the years I have been miserly with my spending on Audible. I've spent my credits judicially, etc., etc. But now with this free catalog, it is like going to the library but with a whole lot more available and with out the wait. In other words, I haven't quite as much re-reading and I have been able to read a variety of books that I would not spend the money on but am happy to read.

Yes, there were some duds in the year but isn't that par for the course? As MikeFinn says, "life's too short" and I easily let go of titles that were just bogging me down. Sometimes, I might rant and rave about the disaster in post but other than that, I just want to start the next book.