What I'm Reading Right Now (Sort of) and Thoughts About What Counts

This post was supposed to be written on Friday. It's Wednesday. And I really don't have anything new to add to my currently reading list. I've decided to DNF list a couple of books, but I haven't started any new ones.

Remember how I said The Toddler had a cold last week and we were snuggling on the couch. Well, now I've got the cold. And holy crap does it suck. I've been sleeping A LOT (and thankfully, so has The Toddler) and not doing much of anything else. The house is a mess, I've had to turn down a showing because it's such a mess. I've got a lot of catching up to do on just about everything. Today is the first day in almost a week that I haven't felt like death but I'm going to continue to take it easy so that I don't get sick again, at least for a couple more days.

I wrote last week about running into a bit of a rough patch with the RMSC. This week the rough spot continues. Everyone in my house is sick, it's a vicious cycle. The Toddler got it from her grandma, and gave it to me, and I gave it to The Husband, and now we've all got The Plague. I haven't read anything in days and I can feel a reading slump coming on. I can sit and scroll through the hundreds of books on my Kindle and not find a single thing I want to read. I can stand and stare at my (beautifully organized) bookshelves and not find a single thing there either.

On the other hand, I can scroll through Pinterest and find book after book that looks/sounds amazing, but of course I don't own any of those books so it doesn't really help. I keep thinking that I need to read something short and quick to get me back into the reading groove, and one book keeps coming to mind. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I read it in high school and it really stuck with me though the years. I remember going 'Jackpot!' in my head when I found a copy of it at Secondhand Prose, and though I've kept it for years I've yet to read it. But I have read it in the past, so I can't decide if it should count for the challenge or not. I'm reading it anyway, of course, but I can't decide if I should count it. This had got me thinking about other things that may or may not count.

First, books that are part of a series. Like the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series by Tad Williams. I've got all the books in the series but I have only read the first book and maybe half of the second book, and that was years ago now. So, I need to reread the series from the beginning, but does the first book count towards the challenge since I've already read it? The point of the challenge is to read books I already own, but do only unread books count?

When I originally came up with this challenge the goal was to read books I own but have not read yet. Counting books I've read already is not what the challenge is supposed to be about, it's about reading new things. So, I think if it's something I've already read, even if it's part of a series, it doesn't count.

But that brings up the next thing. Books that are half read? Going back to the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series. I read half of the second book but didn't finish it. It was a good book, I just got into a reading slump and never picked it back up. Since it was never finished does it count? I think so. One of the reasons I decided to do the challenge was to actually read the books on my shelves, including the half read ones that I never got around to finishing.

But what about books like The Yellow Wallpaper, that I read and then bought a copy, but never read the copy I own? I'm thinking no, that it shouldn't count. I've read the book, even if it wasn't the copy that's sitting on a shelf upstairs, I've read it.

Quick summary of newly established rules;
Books I read and then bought - don't count.
Books I bought and then read - don't count.
Books I bought, started, but didn't finish - do count.

So this is where I am this week. Hopefully by Friday I'll be feeling better and be able to post a better update.