Monday, January 4, 2016

Books, books, books



A couple of years ago, i had a GIANT list of books that i'd been meaning to read, that i wanted to read. I kept not reading it, though, because i'd finish a book and think, "What should i read next?" and then not remember what any of those books was, so i'd search Goodreads for books that looked interesting, add them to my list, and choose one of those to read. So my list kept getting longer and longer, and i was never, ever going to read them all.

And so i decided that i would stop the madness, and i made it my New Year's resolution to read (or admit that i never would read) all of those books before i added any new ones to my list. And i started reading, and first i read all of the books that i recognized the names of. And then i started re-looking up the books and trying to remember what they were, and reading the ones that immediately made me interested again. And the year ended, and i made it my New Year's resolution AGAIN to continue doing the same thing.

And in about November of this past year, i got down to about 30 books left on the list and looked at them and thought, "I just...don't feel like i even remotely want to read most of these." So i scratched off all but about 10. And then i thought, "I probably want to read these? Eventually?" But i also just really missed reading books that i really wanted to read. And so i just decided to throw the rest out for the time being. 

All through December, i barely even looked at a book. It was kind of sad. But after Christmas, i started reading again. I've turned to my "list of books that i really want to read that weren't on that list from two years ago," and i've started reading those books, and it is glorious to be reading books that i'm really excited about reading again. I look at my books and think, "I could read THIS! Or THIS! OR THIS!"

The obvious lesson here is this: I need to actually read the books on my list when i first get them, rather than adding and adding and adding.  Now we'll see how good i am at learning from past mistakes....

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