All Kinds of Progress

Reached page fifty in my book last night--the one I'm writing, not the one I'm reading. I know it's just a first draft, but I feel like it's coming together ok. I think I may actually make my goal of getting a full draft done by the end of the year. It helps that I actually know where I'm going with it now, which wasn't the case with an early version I started last summer.

Progress is happening in other areas as well. Amazingly the trip home--in which diet rules went the way of the dinosaur--didn't screw up the weight loss too much. I'm still not quite at my first goal, but I'm closer than I was when I left. Going back to the gym is not easy, but it's nice feeling like I'm moving forward there again.

Also, I meant to post at the beginning of the month about my book goal, but since I forgot to do it then, it fits in well here. I made a goal at the beginning of the year to read 25 books this year. I think I'm going to make it! Here's what I've read so far this year (see, the end of June was the halfway point, which is why I thought I'd post about it then).

Books I haven't read before are bolded. My goal now is to read 25 books I haven't read before.

1. Ethan Frome (1/21/08)
2. The Kite Runner (1/26/08)
3. A Raisin in the Sun (2/8/08)
4. Pride and Prejudice (2/8/08)*
5. Shutter Island (2/15/08)*
6. Their Eyes Were Watching God (3/2/08)*
7. The Old Man and the Sea (3/16/08)
8. The Poe Shadow (3/24/08)
9. Frankenstein (3/24/08)*
10. The Great Gatsby (4/14/08)*
11. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (4/15/08)*
12. 1984 (5/5/08)*
13. I Love You, Beth Cooper (5/13/08)
14. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (5/16/08)*
15. Give a Boy a Gun (5/18/08)
16. Winter's Tale (6/04/08)
17. The Big Over Easy (6/8/08)
18. Then We Came to the End (6/15/08)
19. Jane Eyre (6/24/08)
20. Spook (7/2/08)
21. The Eyre Affair (7/9/08)
22. Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha (7/16/08)

14 new books down, 11 to go. Victory shall be mine!