Written by Melissa McCurdy of Gerbera Daisy Diaries

The best thing about starting a new year — the anticipation of the unread books that sit on my shelf that will be read over the course of the coming  year.  What will I learn? What will I like? What will be my favorite? What will I hate? What will I abandon? What will be released that I wasn’t anticipating? What will tempt me at the library? What will I grab off my shelf that’s been sitting there for months, years — only to realize that I should have read it so much sooner!

Often I try to plan what I will read – I have two required book club books to finish each month, in addition to my own reading choices.  Sometimes it’s easier to plan my reading schedule 4 books at time so I don’t get, what I call “literary attention disorder” — an affliction that I repeatedly get when the number of books on my “to be read” list overwhelms me (visit me on Goodreads and you’ll understand).

I try to read at least 52 books a year — one a week — and even for someone who reads like it’s her job, sometimes turning the first page is the hardest.

Will it be as good as the recommendation?

Should I believe all the hype?

What if I hate it?

So many questions to ask at the start of an unopened book.

But with those questions comes eager expectation, because it’s much likemeeting a friend:  from the first page you can often tell whether or not the two of you will hit if off; whether you need to give it the “50 page rule” to determine if you should continue the relationship; or if that first page creates such magic you instantly know that for the next several hundred pages, life, home, children, employment, will cease to exist and you and your book will embark on a heated literary affair.

Starting a book can also be hampered with, what I call a book hangover:  The time between starting a book after finishing another one — especially if it was particularly memorable.   You’re not quite ready to let the other story, characters, feeling, memory go before embarking on the next reading journey.

I’m not sure what books I will read in 2014, but one thing I am certain of:there is always something exhilarating about turning the first page of a book.  

My reading highlights from 2013:

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell (fiction) was a complete unexpected treat.  A ’90s tale of two friends — Beth & Jennifer — both writers for an urban newspaper whose email correspondence becomes late night reading material for Lincoln, an IT specialist hired to monitor the newspaper’s internal messages.   What ensues is unanticipated hilarity and a lovely romantic comedy reminiscent of a Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks movie.  

Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg (non- fiction) was a mantra to women — when women succeed all of humanity succeeds.

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton (fiction) was a WWII historical fiction epic that kept me guessing until the very last page.

Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple (fiction) Told in epistolary form, Bernadette and the rag tag characters that inhabit the pages, take us on a Rube Goldberg-like journey – the reader never knowing what will happen next, where you will end up or how it will end.  Truly, I haven’t read something so different, unique, and entertaining in a very long time!

The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty (fiction) In this excellent novel,  three ordinary families lives are subtly intertwined and harbor secrets that change their lives forever.  I really enjoyed this book and how the author turned run of the mill families into an escalating moral dilemma.

Melissa McCurdy is a mother of 3; wife of 1; lover of football, politics, food, travel, theatre and all things literary. She has been published in Soiree and Little Rock Family.  She works for the Fletcher branch of the Central Arkansas Library System.  She blogs about books at www.gerberadaisydiaries.com