In Pursuit of Completion

I am generally pretty focused.  I tend to complete tasks set before me.  I also love to read and at any given time am reading at least 4 books.  Every January, one of my goals is to read more.  Beginning 2013, I started to record lists of books I read throughout the year.  I averaged about 12 books a year but was very disappointed when I looked back on last year's list and saw a mere 8.  I decided I needed to up my reading game and started another book immediately!  That was when I realized: I had actually started more than 8 books in 2015, but only actually finished 8...  I began to look around my house where I (and I'm sure everyone else) keep books (in my nightstand, the bookcase, my desk) and realized I had quite a few unfinished books.  They had not necessarily been abandoned because they were uninteresting but rather because I had started another book and the poor thing got left behind.  I gathered all of these books (there were 11, including the three I had started this year) and decided for 2016, before I ventured onto any more books, I would finish these.

I also thought it would be fun to go on Amazon and see when the books had been purchased.  Of course, not all of them were purchased on Amazon, but it was interesting to see just how long these books had been on my "To Finish Reading" list.  And I actually found not one... not two... but THREE additional books that I had forgotten I started... so, I added those to the list as well (and started to get a bit nervous that I may not finish them all... again.):

1. Joie De Vivre: Simple French Style of Everyday Living by Robert Arbor and Katherine Whiteside (purchased on Amazon, March 2006)

2. Her Mother's Hope by Francine Rivers

(received as a Christmas gift some time ago)

3. Women, Work, & the Art of Savoir Fair: Business Style & Sensibility by Mireille Guiliano

(this book was published in 2009, so I'm sure I picked it up somewhere soon thereafter)

4. Backyard Birding: Using Natural Gardening to Attract Birds by Julie Zickefoose 

and the editors and writers of Bird Watcher's Digest

(purchased at Scottsdale Farms, 2012)

5. Beautiful Ruins, a Novel by Jess Walter

(purchased on Amazon, December 2013)

6. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

(picked up at a second-hand store, 2014)

7. French Women Don't Get Facelifts: The Secret of Aging with Style & Grace by Mireille Guiliano

(purchased  on Amazon, July 2014)

8. The French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook by Mireille Guiliano

(purchased on Amazon, September 2014)

9. One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

(borrowed from a friend Spring 2015 :-/)

10. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

(purchased from Goodwill, Summer 2015)

11. You Matter More Than You Think by Leslie Parrott

(purchased on Amazon, September 2015)

12. Madamoiselle: Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History by Rhonda K. Garelick

(received as a Christmas gift 2015)

13. Marrying Mozart, a Novel by Stephanie Cowell

(I cannot even remember when I purchased this one, but I started it a few weeks ago)

14. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo

(Purchased towards the end of 2015)

Whew.  I didn't really expect this list to grow as I was writing this post.  I just kept finding them... in a bathroom, on [yet another] shelf.  

I would love to know... am I the only person who starts books and doesn't always finish?  I am certain I am not... Please comment below and let me know what books are sitting in your "To Finish Reading" pile!