Any other readers out there?? I actually majored in English at university and got my Masters’ in Secondary Education so I could study books and help others love to read for a living.
While my path never actually led me to a 6th grade English classroom, books are still the way I learn the most about life, relax at the end of a day, escape into different worlds, and gain perspective on humanity, business, art, and even parenting.
I stopped reading for the longest time when my kids were really little…
I felt to stretched to pick up a book for leisure or actually digest anything of value because I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow each night.
I would only read non-fiction business books because I felt like if I had down time I needed to be working.
I would be completely overwhelmed even choosing a book to begin with, so I just didn’t start anything.
But when I realized that books are made and consumed one page at a time (duh), that freed me to not make “sitting down to read” a big deal.
Here’s how/when I find time to read:
I leave one book on the counter or a kitchen side table at all times. This makes it my default reach (as opposed to my phone) while the chicken is sizzling, while the coffee is brewing, while the kids happen to be playing fine together for 2 minutes.
School pickup line. This could also easily default to phone time, but when I bring my book, that’s a solid 15 minutes of quiet (or to the babbling sounds of my little guy playing trains in the back carseat.)
Bedtime. Sometimes it’s half an hour, sometimes it’s just a page. But it’s still a page. It quiets my mind from my present swirl and opens it to a wider world before my eyes collapse.
The more I committed to these little habits, the more I truly enjoyed reading again. I tend to lean towards a non-fiction read in the mornings and fiction at night if I’ve got 2 going at the same time.
Last year, I read a conglomeration of non-fiction, fiction, photography, and children’s chapter books (hello homeschooling in a pandemic.) We would have “lunch read-aloud” and again at bedtime… but I chose the books 😉
Here’s a list of the literary treasures that filled my cup in 2021:
It’s more books than I’ve probably ever read in a single year. All in the fringes or with children underfoot. It was the gold in a pandemic year.
So now I have a habit back and my sights set on an ambitious book list, knowing and hoping that other little nuggets pop into my radar that I “just have to read,” and others might get pushed aside because life is unpredictable!
I’ve made an effort to seek out diversity in authors and topics, and included more fiction, too – after all, I’ve come to learn that fiction is just as packed with insight as anything else. 🙂
What are you excited to read this year?! I’ll be sharing books and reviews on these as I finishing them on my Instagram account, so come join me there for more book chats!
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