Behind on My Reading Goal - Time to Catch Up

Jul 14, 2025

I know it’s a little ostentatious to write an article on books I’ve read and am reading. Just know that I do it for three reasons;

To keep myself accountable to my goal of reading a certain number of books each year,
To inspire you to pick up one of them and see if you get the same impression as I did, and
To trigger you to share what you’re reading this year, to inspire me to add it to my future reading list. I’m always looking for new options.

I’m a little behind in my goal to read eighteen books this year. I’m only at seven through six and a half months. My five-week ordeal of contracting pneumonia and spending sixteen days in the hospital, with another two weeks recovering at home, is to blame. I’m hoping to pick up the pace in the second half of the year.

Since July 1st, I’ve been reading three books to get caught up. When I finish all three, I’ll be at nine through seven months and still have a little catch-up to do.

One, I finished. Eudora Welty’s One Writer’s Beginnings.

The two others I’m working on are Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5, and a debut novelist’s 2021 novel, God Spare the Girls by Kelsey McKinney. I’m halfway through both of those.

It’s rare that I read two books at the same time.

The effort was triggered by my reading of One Writer’s Beginnings, which I undertook as part of my local tennis club’s monthly book club. I typically only participate about 3-4 months out of the eleven months each year. But, since the book was a successful and popular novelist’s memoir and was only one hundred twenty pages, I figured it would be worthwhile.

It wasn’t.

The one hundred twenty pages read like a thousand. Of the ten book club participants, I was one of four who defined the book as a “slog.” So, I felt vindicated. It just didn’t fulfill my expectations.

After that experience, I needed something more fulfilling, so I fell back on an old favorite, Slaughterhouse 5. It’s a book I read in high school and is my favorite from those days. I read it for a second time during the 2020 pandemic, but felt I hadn’t grasped it’s full meaning. So I picked it up for a second time this decade.

A week into reading Slaughterhouse 5, I had a call with my novel-writing coach. She is beginning to prepare me to put my agent query package together. A key component of the query is a list of ‘comps.’ Comps are published novels in the genre I’m writing that have a similar theme and feel.

That led me on a quest. ChatGPT gave me a list to choose from. Which I did, and that is where God Spare the Girls comes in.

Halfway through, I’m really enjoying it. I think it could be one of the comps I include in my package, if my coach agrees. The theme addresses the moral dilemma that many in the evangelical Christian community face when confronted with worldly temptations and how either succumbing to or avoiding these temptations impacts the most intimate family relationships.

If that topic speaks to you, I highly recommend it. The author is Kelsey McKinney, and it is an excellent effort, whether as a debut novel or even a second, third, fourth, or fifth novel, for that matter.

So far, it seems like an ideal comp. I will finish God Spare the Girls this week before returning to Kurt.

As I finish writing this and review my Goodreads account, I notice that I've read another book since returning from the hospital. Albert Camus’s The Stranger. It too, was just a little over one hundred pages. I guess those small ones count, right?

What are you reading or have on your nightstand to read the second half of 2025?

Behind on My Reading Goal - Time to Catch Up

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