Life By Kristen

Reading Resolutions

Reading is by far one of my favorite things to do. My love for books has increased significantly in the past few years as audiobooks have transformed my daily commute and allow me to tackle more of the titles on my ever growing ‘to-read’ list.

I think I probably could have read more books if I didn’t spend a lot of my evenings reading articles and blogs on the iPad so hope to focus on bettering my reading habits in the new year.

2016  was filled with great books- some out of my comfort zone, reading the backlist of my favorite authors, and new discoveries for me like finally reading Harry Potter.

For 2017, my goal is, as always it seems, to read more from my own bookshelf and the books I own. As a general rule since about 2008 or so, I have tried to not buy any brand new books. This is mostly because of the aforementioned issues of never getting around to reading books I own. This is apparently not a problem only for me, but for millions of other bookworms and is called tsundoku.

Many of these books were purchased at a local bookstore that a few years ago had a month-long $1 book bonanza. My mom and I thought this meant the store was going out of business, so we went a bit crazy. And after their $1 month, they announced they were ALWAYS going to be a $1 bookstore from then on! Good marketing for them, as it totally got us there to buy books when we weren’t planning on it.

I’m also trying to pass books along after I read them, either to friends/family who I know will enjoy or donating to the library. I used to be a person who kept every single book as a badge of honor of my reading prowess, but as a quasi-minimalist, I like the idea of passing along good titles to the next book lover instead of keeping them to myself. There have been a few books over the years I’ve held onto and make sure are returned to me when I lend them out ( Baker Towers being one of them), but overall, I read and pass along.

This year, I’m also trying to read outside my comfort zone, particularly with both fiction and nonfiction that will expand my horizons and get me out of my bubble of white privilege. The election and the happenings of the world have me wanting to retreat more into the bubble to escape the news and events, but I’m fighting hard against that because I realize doing that is part of the issues we have in the country. So while I look to reading as my entertainment and escape, I also need it to be more of my education too.