Why can't I finish a book this year?

So, spring has sprung around my neck of the woods, and I am THRILLED! The past two weeks I have been running around like mad doing things, meeting people, reorganizing and purging stuff, being creative, and just over all getting things done. It has been totally exhausting but also exhilarating as I've been able to tic of many items from my to-do list, items that have been the victims of procrastination, and thus have an even sweeter taste of accomplishment.

So, with the energy that comes with spring, I have decided to make this month one where I complete, or make serious headway on, all of the projects I have started and never completed, or planned out intricately in my head but never actually got the ball rolling on. This whole idea is making me giddy just thinking about it, and though I've been ready for a nap since I dragged myself out of bed this morning, I know that I am going to stay up for at least another 15 minutes while I finish another task I've been meaning to do for awhile.

But with all of this thinking of things I haven't finished I started thinking about the books I have started recently and haven't yet finished. And because I make lists, here is one detailing why I haven't finished all of the books that hold a bookmark of mine right now.

1. Middlemarch. I started reading this before Christmas, when the snow was coming down like crazy. Then, the first week of January, 80 pages away from the end, I accidentally spilled the entire contents of my SIGG water bottle on it, my journal and my planner. My planner and journal being much thinner books dried within two days, but Middlemarch took a lot of time sitting in front of the heater vent with the pages all curled up to ensure they wouldn't stick together. Then, it was so warped and the pages all bumpy, I put it under a piece of furniture to flatten it out. It is still there.

2. More Information than You Require. My brother gave this to me for Christmas, and it is pretty delightful easy reading. It was the first book I turned to when Middlemarch was soaked. But then the Israeli Palestinian conflict flared up pretty substantially and I decided I should finally read Jimmy Carter's Palestine Peace not Apartheid.

3. Palestine Peace Not Apartheid. This one is just pathetic. I am about 10 pages from the end, but for a book club needed to re-read If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, so put it down.

4. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. I think if I can swing getting all of the kids REALLY run down before nap time thus ensuring a long nap, I can finish it tomorrow.

5. A Girl Like I. Anita Loos' autobiography (she was a writer/screenwriter/playwright who wrote Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, among many other things). I started this last fall and put it down when I found the Winchester Austen editions and decided to read Emma, Persuasion, and Pride and Prejudice in a week. Sadly, Anita and I have yet to be reunited.

6. Cahiers du Cinema 1950s. I've been reading this off and on since last summer. I'll read an article or two and then decide I need to netflix the film(s) they discussed in the article. Then, after seeing the film(s) I re-read the article. This process might never end.

So here I am, in limbo with 6 books simultaneously. I am not sure I have the same high hopes for a couple of these titles as I do for the rest of my to do list, but I think getting George Eliot out from under the furniture and finishing it is the first thing I'll do after Italo Calvino solves this mystery for me once again.