Slice of Life: Why I Should Stay Away from Reading Challenges!

It's fall and that means it's time for an update to my #mustreadin2019 list. I've been dragging my feet because, well, I'm behind a bit. I tried to scale back my list this year by choosing only 12 books, one for each month. That's a realistic goal, right? Except I've only read four of the twelve books on my list and this is September, the ninth month of 2019. So why am I behind on the list of books that I selected to read this year?

• I get easily sidetracked by organizational/self-improvement books (ever hopeful that this might be my year to finally get my act together).
• I'm always distracted by middle grade Newbery possibilities.
• I belong to two book clubs: one I've belonged to for more than twenty years and the other one is a book club with two friends who have moved away (we get together and chat about our books on google chat or when we can't get it to work, we just do a three way call). 
• I have ARCs from NCTE and from our local indie bookstore that I still want to read.
• I lead a middle school lunchtime book group. We met twice during the summer.
• I love reading books about spiritual growth.
• I'm working on the KCLS 10 to Try Reading Challenge, (7/10 completed).
• And I have a steady stream of picture books that I request based on blogger friends' recommendations.   

Perhaps it's too difficult to decide what I'll read in a given year when I know there will be so many new books that will lead me astray, books that jump off the library shelf into my arms, and constant recommendations from bookish friends. So maybe next year will be my year of no book challenges. I'll just meander from book to book, giving in to whatever tickles my bookish desires. 

And yes, I promise to post my pitiful #mustreadin2019 update soon!