New Year's resolutions continue for this pedometer geek.  As reported previously, I have two (main) resolutions.  One is to increase my daily step count; the other is to read more books than last year.

April was a decent month for both of my resolutions.  With the weather being unseasonably warm, I managed to log over 198,000 steps on my pedometer, and more than 46,000 of them were considered aerobic steps, and I had several days of hitting 10,000 steps or more.  Perhaps May will be the month that I consistently manage that feat.

April was also a good month for reading.  I managed to read (read: complete) fourteen books of various genres.  It was a mixed bag of books.  Some were YA, some were nonfiction, some were suspense/thrillers, some were romance novels, and others were what I classify as general fiction.  April was also the beginning of the second quarter's SIY (set-it-yourself) challenge at BookCrossing.com, and I challenged myself to read twenty-one books, only a few of which were predetermined titles.  Having failed at the last few SIY challenges, I decided to open up my challenge a bit.  Eight of the books I read I counted in my challenge, and at present, I am reading five other books that will count as part of the twenty-one books.  

In my pages-read challenge at BookCrossing.com, I managed to read 3384 pages bringing my year-to-date total to 11,801 pages read.  I had challenged myself to read at least 30,000 pages this year.  

The books I read were a diverse bunch. I read many of them on my Nook Simple Touch.  Because most of the e-books were library books, and since I am not always sure of what I am getting with an e-book from the library, I find that I am reading books I probably wouldn't have chosen otherwise.  However, because of this, I am being exposed to different authors, which is always a good thing.  At least eight of the authors were new to me.

The books that I completed in April are as follows:

  The Dressmaker   by Kate Alcott 

  The Throne of Fire   by Rick Riordan

  The Peach Keeper   by Sarah Addison Allen  *

  Keeping Faith   by Jodi Picoult  *

  Twilight   by Stephenie Meyer

  The Russian Affair   by Michael Wallner  *

  Eat, Pray, Love   by Elizabeth Gilbert  *

  Black and Blue   by Anna Quindlen  *

  Gettysburg   by Newt Gingrich/William R. Fortschen  *

  Dating Can Be Deadly   by Wendy Roberts

  A Darker Domain   by Val McDermid

  The Diving-bell and the Butterfly   by Jean-Dominique Bauby  *

  The Expats   by Chris Pavone  *

  The Devil in Winter   by Lisa Kleypas

More about some of the books themselves later in another blog, but for now this pedometer geek is going for a walk.  I need to start off with at least 10,000 or more if I'm to make 330,000 steps in May.

* books chosen for my SIY challenge