Tuesday, January 21, 2020

I Used to Read: Update

Since the end of July I've been pursuing a different strategy when it comes to reading. I'm requesting more paper books through the library in order to access content not necessarily available through their ebook collections. I'm trying to be more intentional about what I read instead of just feeding myself what I can easily find.

The tensions haven't gone away. I still fight distractions, internal and external. My job responsibilities have shifted a bit so I won't have to spend as much time on social media. Still playing games on my phone more than I ought to, but it helps that one of my confederates in that pursuit decided to give it up, at least for a while. I cancelled Netflix and I'm reading more on the treadmill than I did before, though that only works for the ebooks. I have a harder time reaching for the paper ones, sometimes, since they are just less convenient.

Overall, though, I think my reading experience has improved. I've read about 40 books in the last six months. Nine of them were re-reads. Eight were books I read for work, mostly mission books for writing reviews. Twenty-two were from the library, either paper books or ebooks. But I was able to give 4-5 stars (out of five) to almost 70 percent of what I read. Only a dozen were in the 2-3 range. Previously my most common ranking was a 3... was reading too many middling mysteries and novels. 

Two re-reads I gave fives to were:
For fiction,
  • I once again loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
  • I also enjoyed some Wendell Berry, both re-reads and first-time reads, and revisited a couple of Arthur Ransome books, a childhood favorite, and decided I'd like to read some more Fredrik Backman.
Other highlights shed light on American history, and included:
I don't have a particular goal for 2020 reading, though I'd like to read 80 books again, which seems to be my new normal. Decided to start of the year with a 90-day read through the Bible, which I'm happy about but is leaving me less time for other kinds of reading.
Note: I may have neglected this blog quite a bit, but I'm not abandoning it yet. Since we're counting things... this is post # 1000 I've published since launching the blog in 2006.