When we opened our calendars to the first week of January it was time for a new beginning. Many of you I am sure set some new personal goals at the start of the year; I know I did. Yet as the pages of the calendars got flipped even just a couple of times, I am sure that you, like me, were "fine-tuning" those goals. One I am not changing --- my plan for reading for 2008. I read a lot, but my new vow is that each book will get a "50-page" read before I decide whether or not to continue it. I have decided that I want to concentrate my time in 2008 on the books that really grab my attention. If any of you have a reading goal for 2008, I would love to hear it. Drop me a line at Carol@bookreporter.com with a subject line of "reading goal" and let me know.

Last weekend's American Library Association Midwinter Conference was a great experience. The Friday evening kickoff event with Geraldine Brooks and Mary Doria Russell got the show off to a great start. Brooks spoke eloquently about the influence that her travels had on PEOPLE OF THE BOOK, which was inspired by something that happened to her in Sarajevo, and the effect that her training as a journalist has had on her novel writing. Russell was outrageously funny talking about librarians as those who fed her habit for books and reading over the years and made her into the reader she is today, corrupting her into the world of books like they were pushing drugs upon her.

I am writing this newsletter from Philadelphia where I am attending the American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting. It's a nice way to jumpstart the year. I loved going to the library when I was growing up, so it's always great fun for me to have a chance to meet with librarians and hear about the books and authors they are excited about.