comfort zones and reading schedules

Julie Miller posted an interesting entry and as I typed in a reply I realized that due to it’s lengthiness that it was really better suited for it’s own entry since I seemed to have stumbled off subject just a tiny bit. 

I’ve always considered myself to be a reader with a large spectrum of likes when it comes to choosing books.  And then last year I participated in the challenge and found “holes” in what I have been reading.

Sure, last year I read contemporary, historical and paranormal romance.  A book of poetry and a few non-romance best-sellers.  But where were all of my sci-fi and autobiographies/biographies that I used to read and love so much?  Not to mention the do-it yourself books and also the self-help books that I used to read.  I know right where they are.  They are sitting on my shelf gathering dust.  This challenge expanded my choices in the realm of romance but in the process I have shifted everything else to the backburner.  There are many that I have started and not finished; others that looked so good in the store but were shifted to the bottom because I got caught up in so many excellent reviews for other books that I HAD to squeeze them in to my reading time. 

And as reading goes, I am no slouch.  Granted I can’t keep up with many of the readers here but I read 144 books last year and still have so many more books waiting to be read.  It truly boggles my mind. 

This also crosses over to an entry that Cynthia (CJP) posted earlier on about the books that she would like to read this year.  I fear her list is quite a bit more impressive than mine, but what can I say?  <shrug>

Here is a list of books that I want to read, non-romance, before this year is over.

 Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius 

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.  I’ve started this one, just need to finish it. 

Christy by Catherine Marshall, I’ve read this one before but I was only fourteen at the time and feel like I can probably take more from the book this time through. 

Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World by Lama Surya Das

  Jesus The Son Of Man by Kahlil Gibran  

Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke – I bought this one last year and was so excited to start it but for some reason it keeps hiding under all the other books in the pile. 

Lisey’s Story by Stephen King 

And I am sure that there are more books, but these are the ones I can think of without having to get up and go through my piles in the bedroom.   

So, how about everyone else?  Do you have books from other genres hiding out under your pile(s) of romance novels?  And if you do, how are you planning to squeeze them in to your reading schedule?