Gateways to the fantastic

It seems like forever since I've really sat down with the express purpose to read. While in London, I went through sixteen books, some good (Layer Cake and Collapse), some bad (Angels and Demons and The DaVinci Code), which isn't a bad number, considering the amount of time that we spent on trains and buses while in the city. But when I got back, it seems like I've never found the time to read. Right after London was working at the Y, where I couldn't read. Then on to summer camp, where I probably read two books in all, although I started a couple of others. Camp's busy, and by the end, any free moments that one gets, it's usually trying to get a bit of rest. School last semester was also busy, and while I did get through three or four books, I also got cable television, and dammit, I've gotten my money's worth out of that. So TV won out over books last semester. Thus, my slightly post New Year's resolution will be to get through this twelve book pile in a reasonable amount of time, ie, within the next two months. Doable? I think so.
I'm one of those weird persons who actually likes to read, to take the time to just sit and do just that, despite my many distractions this semester. I read a number of good books over the semester, including a couple that have either sucked me into a series, or left me wanting to see what else the author's put out. Altered Carbon was like that, and there's two more installments for the main character there. Singularity Sky was also really good, and both books were cutting edge, hard science fiction with some amazing prose. The first two books of the Dresden Files were fun reads, I read them both in the past week, and while not spectacular prose wise, they're amusing and light reads, which'll probably have me buying and finishing off the entire series before summer. I've got Alistar Reynolds coming up, whom I've been looking to read for a couple years now, as well as a couple of other books that I've had on my shelves for years now and never really gotten around to reading, such as the last installment of Michael Stackpole's Dragoncrown cycle, Grand Crusade and the Gunslinger, by Stephen King. And there's the random other authors that I've been told good things about.
Granted, I've got a huge chunk of my library that I haven't gotten to yet, but that's the fun of essentially owning a small library of books - there's aways something to look forwards to. Makes me want an ice storm to completely shut Vermont down for a couple of days.