The best laid plans...

Of course I didn't shift right into A Bend in the River after I finished The Mind of Thomas Jefferson. My wife and I finally checked out the local library on Saturday. I had this new library card so I had to check out something. I checked out The Sea. I've had it on my radar for awhile. I've checked out the ebook but didn't read a single page. The book is short and the font is large so I figured I could give it a shot. It's a short book so taking a few days to read it wouldn't cause a huge setback. I've read enough to know that I want to finish it. I probably would have finished it by now if I hadn't also checked out an ebook from my new library. I just picked a random book from the new classics list to get a sense of the online collection's depth. The book was there, Erasure, so I checked it out. I have it for two weeks. I made the mistake of starting this one too. It's better than The Sea. It's also a short book, about 6 hours or so according to the Kindle app, so I could theoretically get it read in my two week borrowing window. 

So I have three books going on simultaneously. A Bend in the River (I have read a few pages so it's not like I've abandoned it...again), The Sea, and Erasure. I should get serious and finish Erasure this weekend (it has the shorter loan period). That will free me up to wrap up The Sea before getting back to A Bend in the River. That's my current plan, but I guess there's an argument that a better plan would be to return them both and focus on the book that I own. That would depend on the goal. Reading good books? Reading them all is the right choice. Reaching my target of reading 35 books this year? Adding two short books to the list is a good step to realizing that goal. Bookshelf Zero? Using all my reading time to get through an owned book would be the right choice. I'm into all three so I'm going with the reading good books perspective. The extra books towards my reading goal is a bonus. 

My plan is still to get to The Count of Monte Cristo after A Bend in the River. Reading these other two books kind of helps make that happen as it will be easier to dedicate the time to such a big book if I have a couple more titles in the bank.