The Task

I have always considered myself a fairly well-read person.  In high school and college, I was never the person who shirked my reading responsiblities for class in favor of spark notes or a descriptive summary from a reliable friend.  I actually read the books (imagine that!)

In addition, my mother is a librarian and has been forcing books on me since the day I was born.  I have never been without a stack of at least four books (and now my kindle) on my night stand.  She is a reading purist, however, which means, in spite of my kindle, she still buys me the actual flesh and blood books.  Or I guess I should say, paper and ink books...  Whether I wanted to or not, I was going to be a reader.

(My nightstand as it looks currently.  There's also a National Geographic in case, God forbid, I should run out of books.)

In addition to being a reader I like to fancy myself as a writer.  I have about four in progress books saved on my computer at the moment and someday I plan to finish at least one of them.  I am also a free lance writer for a local magazine called Denver Life.  Not to mention, I took four years of college Latin, which has turned me into (as my students so lovingly call me) The Grammar Police.

What I have lacked as a writer is the follow-through to actually complete a long term work.  Sure, I can make up excuses (too busy with grad school, too busy with work, too busy attending to my kitten) but they are all just excuses.  I stumbled upon a link the other day (literally I was on the website StumbleUpon) on how to make you a better writer.  One of the words of wisdom was to "find your muse."  Here is the link:

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-ultimate-guide-to-writing-better-than-you-normally-do/

Conveniently, Amazon also released their list of 100 books to read in a lifetime.  So I combined the two and have started my journey to find my muse.... by reading Amazon's 100 books to read in a lifetime.  In case you are so inclined to do the same, here is the link to their list:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/ref=pe_629030_112574320_pe_row1_ptr/?node=8192263011 

Maybe this is just another excuse.  But by starting this blog, I am already writing.  And at the end of it, at the very least, I will have completed a blog (to potentially be read by friends and family and hopefully a few others) and I will be DAMN well read.