My Reading Life Ahead of Me, 2020

Hi, guys!  Have you made your reading goals for 2020?  I have a couple of things I’d like to accomplish.  I seem to do well at the “2 books a month rate” and I have particular reason to change it, so I’ll just leave it at that.  Of course that doesn’t prevent my TBR to increase at an alarming exponential rate!  Sometimes I think I like collecting TBRs than I do actually reading.  Am I the only one like this, and what is the reason do you think?

I’ve made out my annual fiction list weeks ago, and some of the highlights I’m hoping to get to are as follows:

It looks like I have a lot of vintage mysteries in store for me!

Then, I have some non-fiction books I really want to get to this year:

My Word of the Year 2020 is ‘DWELL’, so a lot of the books I want to read has to do with being in the moment.  Another aspect of that is journaling, which I have made a renewed resolution to do.  My journaling life the last few years has felt rather blah.  I feel the desire to do things differently, and so I have checked a stack of books out of the library, as well as peruse my own home library, on books pertaining to the subject.  Something in line with art journaling is the direction I want to go in.  Right now, I’m reading “A Trail Through Leaves: The Journal as a Path to Place,”  by Hannah Hinchman and am really enjoying it!  I’m also having fun with a cute little coffee table read, “Cosy: The British Art of Comfort,” by Laura Weir.

What will be new on the blog?  At this point, I don’t foresee any changes on the horizon.  The good news is that I read a lot of books last year (for me, anyway), so there will be more book reviews coming.  Since I want to spend more time reading and journaling, I might spend less time blogging so there might be less of other types of posts, such as movie reviews.  I do love me a good movie, but I can’t do everything I’d like and some things need paring down.

One thing that has been helping me celebrate the completion of a good book is sharing via goodreads book groups.  There are a few games I partake in, and am currently playing my first team challenge reading game.  That means, I’d best get off the www and crack open the book on my nightstand!  Excuse me!

 

 

2019 Year in Review + Favorites Awards!

I guess I have myself pretty well pegged by now, as I completed exactly the amount of books I set out for myself in 2019, which was 24 books.  That was more than I had read in the previous 4 years, so hooray for me! 😀  Do you reach any reading milestones?

I read some great Christian living non-fiction books this year, tried a lot of new-to-me authors, did some rereading and even stepped out into the cozy mystery genre a few times.  I also decided to quit my third-party book selling on Amazon, and haven’t been attending as many used book sales.  That freed up more space around here for my ever-growing home library.  I now have two half shelves of space (but not for long)!

This is the part of the show where I say “This is the part of the show where I answer silly questions with silly titles from silly (or not so silly) books…”  I play this every year and it’s a real blast!  This year, there’s a few more questions thrown in.  I will try not to repeat:

Describe yourself:  “This Is My Body,” by Ragan Sutterfield

Describe where you currently live:  “Uncle Sam’s Plantation,” by Star Parker

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:  “Ashenden,” by Elizabeth Wilhide

Your favourite form of transportation: “Slow,” by Brooke McAlary

What’s the weather like:  “Rhythms of Rest,” by Shelly Miller

You and your friends are: “Between Us Girls,” by Sally John

You fear:  “The End of Law,” by Therese Down

What is the best advice you have to give: “The Power Formula for LinkedIn Success,” by Wayne Breitbarth

Thought for the day: “Distinctly You,” by Cheryl Martin

My soul’s present condition: “Seated with Christ,” by Heather Holleman

How I would like to die:  “Love’s Awakening,” by Laura Frantz

2019 can be summed up as: “Respect for Acting,” by Uta Hagen

If you looked under my couch you would see: “The Shape of Sand,” by Marjorie Eccles

At a party you’d find me (with/in etc.): “The Country Beyond,” by James Oliver Curwood

At the end of a long day I need: “The Enchanted Hour,” by Meghan Cox Gurdon

My fantasy job is (to be): “Million Dollar Baby,” by Amy Patricia Meade

To fight zombies, I’d arm myself with: “The Woman in White,” by Wilkie Collins

A happy day includes: —-

On my bucket list is/are: “The Fortunes of Captain Blood,” by Rafael Sabatini

If I was competing in the 2020 Japan Olympics/Paralympics, my chosen sport would be: “Rooted,” by Banning Liebscher

Almost filled in all the blanks!  It’s more fun when you have a longer list of titles to work with.  What would your answers be?

Arranged by category, my 2019 Favorites Awards are as follows:

2019 Most Resonated With- All my life I have spent comparing myself to others and wanting perfection. I needed such an encouraging read.

2019 Best Romance- A girl, a lawbreaker, and a dog… Will love or justice win?

2019 Most Beautifully Written; 2019 Best Atmosphere- Mervyn Peake is simply the best. Settings and characters, sometimes seemingly without a reason for their existence but simply for the beauty of the idea of the thing and the words used to describe them.

2019 Best Non-Fiction- It’s been a long time since I’ve listened to an audiobook, and the author was well directed in her reading. I listened like it was a podcast and took scads of notes because her research and facts were so interesting.

2019 Most Thought-Provoking- I read this early on in the year, but the ramifications were far-reaching because I’m still making a weekly effort to rest, adjusting and readjusting the details to do it well. I also have followed up the book by subscribing to the author’s newsletters.

2019 Most Admirable Heroine- The best thing is that this book was based on the true life story of Elizabeth Keckly, who served as fashion seamstress to many of Washington D.C.’s elite, and the official dressmaker of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. Her story doesn’t stop at the White House, though. As she faces many trials throughout her life, she exudes loyalty, resourcefulness, independence and strength.

2019 Best Humor- Sigmund Brouwer got my funny bone when I read his books as a kid and continues to strike me funny. Although a little weak in plot, the characters and witty banter was very entertaining!

2019 Best Drama; 2019 Most Admirable Hero; 2019 Best Villain; 2019 Best Story Plot; 2019 Most Fun Read- There’s so much contained in this masterpiece. The characters were memorable; the suspense fantastic! Walter Hartright wins as hero of the year, sacrificing his immediate happiness for the love of his heart. On the flip side, Count Fosco gets my vote for best villain. The psychological thrills are plenty!

What fiction book won my heart this year?…

#2 in the Gormenghast Series was just so much fun to read and though some books may come and go, not many leave such an impression as the world Mervyn Peake created, on the edge of insanity and pure bliss.

Here’s to another wonderful year of reading; may it be informative and full of wonder and imagination!

 

Looking Forward in 2019

New Year’s resolutions, check! First though, I want to do a rundown of what did and didn’t work for me last year in the world of books. I know I usually do that in my annual year-in-review posts, but I forgot a few things…

I tried to join a couple of reading challenge groups on goodreads last year. The first one was a type of ‘Read a Book that Contains These Certain Elements’ type groups. Except, they had really stringent checklists. I really didn’t make it past one book. The reason was not that finding books was so difficult (I mean, I have 2500+ to choose from on my TBR!), but that I’m just too much of a list-lover and have always curated my yearly to-read schedule in such a way that I couldn’t let go of it. I tried, several times but it just wasn’t as much fun doing it any other way. So then I tried a group that has lists(!) of words you look for in whatever book you happen to choose to read. That’s working a bit better for me, and it’s fun to compare my findings with my mom at the end of the month as we work from the same scavenger hunt words.

But at the same time, I feel like I’m hunting for more, something different. I don’t know what it is yet but I think I’ll keep scouting around. Maybe I will decide to post my word lists every once in a while on the blog, if you’re interested.

Something I’ve been having LOADS of fun doing the past year, is creating playlists inspired by the books I read! Maybe I’m not the first person who’s thought of doing this, but I’m enjoying it so much and plan on sharing my music with all of you as I publish my book reviews. All you need is a free Spotify account to listen and I will have the link above my Plot Summaries to click on. I have over a dozen playlists built now, and I am starting to arrange them by mood genre.

As far as reading quantity goes, I don’t expect it will change much this year. Aiming for two books a month seems to be a realistic speed at this time in my life. And I am learning to be okay with that.

I have a couple of books I really, really want to read in particular sometime during this year. They are as follows:

“Polish Your Poise with Madame Chic,” by Jennifer L. Scott

“Relearning to See,” by Thomas Quackenbush (I’m getting progressively myopic and suffering bad eye strain.)

books by Richard Swenson

books on spiritual disciplines

Do you have any goals you would like to achieve in the books this year? Share them with me!

 

New Reading Year- Looking Ahead 2018

I’m pretty excited about the new year and what lies ahead, especially in the area of reading!  I’ve been feeling pretty psyched since I wound up 2017 with more books read than expected, and I’m off to a good start already.  I’ve already finished one book, I have another half read, and another one awaits me at the library after coming in on the interlibrary loan system.

This year my reading resolution is simple: read 24 books (2 books per month).  I’m pretty sure I can accomplish that one.  To some that may not seem very ambitious but it is a challenging, yet doable number for me.  Especially considering I have some other major projects in the works this year.

I have made up my usual reading list for this year, and can’t wait to start on it.  I wrote in a post a long time ago how I do this the week after Christmas.  However, I’m also trying something a little different.  I joined a reading challenge group on goodreads!  I’ve been mulling over joining one for a while and perused several before making up my mind to join The Seasonal Reading Challenge.  This group appealed to me for several reasons.  For one, I liked the idea that it is seasonal and goes by themes.  There many different tasks of varying difficulties and allows for a broad range of reading.  So, I made up a second reading list (did I say I love lists?) planning out titles to read that qualify under the challenges required, only it basically incorporates most of the books from my first list that I’d been planning on reading anyway.  I’m not sure how I will like this change.  You may laugh, but I’m very serious about my lists and what order I read books in.  I love rules, but only the ones I make up for myself.  Ha!  So we’ll see how I do with a reading group.

I will strive to get my reviews ‘caught up’ this year.  This is actually a little relative in my definition of being caught up.  Ever since the start of this blog I have posted reviews at least a year after having read the book and this is because the margin gives me a feeling of distance and control.  It also gives me the ability to change certain comments I make so that I don’t end up writing something I will regret later.  Of course, I sometimes still do regret things I’ve written.  But time to go back much later with hindsight is better for me.  So my goal is to ‘get caught up’ to within a year’s past reviews, if that makes any sense.

I would like to start up my ‘Character Reflections Series’ again; I miss writing them!  Also, I have had an idea for years that I would like to start adding music somehow to my blog, but have not quite figured out how to do it in a way that is not annoying.  I’ve been looking into it and playing around, so don’t be surprised if you find that appearing on booklearned!

Do you have any different reading goals this year?  Share below!

 

 

 

Mid Year Reading Goals

Although it may seem like I’ve been getting into a blogging rut of recent months, I’m actually pretty proud of myself for keeping on and not quitting.  I don’t want to quit even if things have been busy and hectic sometimes.

And I still have new blogging goals.  Some I will not be making public yet for a while with them, and others I will start during now during the mid year.  This revamping is not so much a revamp of the blog, as it is of my reading routines, but the routines will be showing a little difference here on the blog.

So, without further ado, I unmask my newest reading goal, and that is to join The Classics Club.  This is where I make a list of 50+ classics I plan on reading at least within the next five years and blog about them, then link them to The Classics Club blog.  I have decided to do this because 1) the goal was doable; 2) I read classics anyway; 3) I’ve discovered some really lovely book blogs out there that I didn’t know existed through TCC; 4) I would love to meet and interact with some other like-minded book lovers out there!

Below I will be sharing my curated list of classics I plan on reading.  Let it be known that I am using the word ‘classic’ loosely to suit my own tastes, which tend to be a lot of vintage dime thrillers.  I still have no desire to jump into War and Peace.   But I believe that if a book is an oldie and has at least stood the test of time well enough for me to have an interest in reading it, it must be a classic, right?  I also have many children’s classics, but that was in no way meant to cheat.  I appreciate any good story!  And lest anyone shouts my list is ‘No fair!”, I will refer you to the several below that are more ‘serious’ works of literature.  I avoided repeating authors or books from the same series in order to keep the variety.

The list may be subject to change:

Main 50 Classics Club List:

–The Blue Castle, by L. M. Montgomery

–The Borrowers Afield, by Mary Norton

–Miss Billy, by Eleanor H. Porter

–The Seven Conundrums, by E. Phillips Oppenheim (see my review here)

–Return to Gone-Away, by Elizabeth Enright

–The Cloister and the Hearth, by Charles Reade

–The Brass Bottle, by F. Anstey

–The Shaving of Shagpat, by George Meredith

–The Film Mystery, by Arthur B. Reeve

–The Phoenix and the Carpet, by Edith Nesbit (see my review here)

–The Flaming Forest, by James Oliver Curwood

–Captain Blood Returns, by Rafael Sabatini

–King Solomon’s Mines, by H. Rider Haggard

–Dead Men’s Money, by J. S. Fletcher

–The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

–Doctor Thorne, by Anthony Trollope (see my review here)

–John Jago’s Ghost, by Wilkie Collins (see my review here)

–The Passenger from Calais, by Arthur Griffiths

–The Rosary, by Florence L. Barclay

–Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Thief, by Maurice LeBlanc

–The Amazing Interlude, by Mary Roberts Rinehart

–Alice in Blunderland, by John Kendrick Bangs

–At the Appointed Time, by Anna Maynard Barbour

–Wired Love, by Ella Cheever Thayer

–The Heart’s Kingdom, by Maria Thompson Davies

–Basil Howe, by G. K. Chesterton

–Gormenghast, by Mervyn Peake

–The Fisherman’s Lady, by George MacDonald

–The Maid of Sker, by R. D. Blackmore

–Miss Cayley’s Adventures, by Grant Allen

–Down the Garden Path, by Beverley Nichols

–The Willows, by Algernon Blackwood

–The Mystery of the Blue Train, by Agatha Christie

–Mr. Harrison’s Confessions, by Elizabeth Gaskell

–The Man Who Lost Himself, by H. de Vere Stacpoole

–The Laughing Cavalier, by Baroness Emmuska Orczy

–The Green Rust, by Edgar Wallace

–A Fair Barbarian, by Frances Hodgson Burnett

–The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Bronte

–Villette, by Charlotte Bronte

–The New Chronicles of Rebecca, by Kate Douglas Wiggin

–The Blessing of Pan, by Lord Dunsany

–The Palace in the Garden, by Mary Louisa Molesworth

–A Spinner in the Sun, by Myrtle Reed

–Trent’s Last Case, by E. C. Bentley

–The Forsaken Inn, by Anna Katharine Green

–Paradise Lost, by James Milton

–Nothing So Strange, by James Hilton

–Love Insurance, by Earl derr Biggers

–The Book of the Dun Cow, by Walter Wangerin, Jr.

 

 

Do you read long books?

Do you read long books? I confess that I tend to shy away from them.  I think it just seems like too big a commitment for me.  I prefer variety or else I get bored, and tackling a 400+ page novel leaves me exhausting just thinking about it.

It’s ironic but I think I had more patience when I was younger (teenage years). I had more time and I attempted just about any classic in the quest to say I’d read them all.  My tastes and goals have changed over the years.  But some of the longer fictional books I have accomplished in the past include “Little Women (age 12); “Ivanhoe” (which I converted into a 75 page play for my sister and myself); and more recently, “Titus Groan,” by Mervyn Peake.  There are a few others on my TBR that I don’t know when I’ll get to.  “The Maid of Sker,” by Richard D. Blackmore, “The Cloister and the Hearth,” by Charles Reade, and “Glastonbury,” by Donna Fletcher Crowe.

I think some of the reasons why I often shy away from the longer tomes these days is because I don’t feel I have the emotional or mental energy to undertake it. A couple of years ago I ordered a book on interlibrary loan, and then promptly sent it back upon seeing how thick the book and how tiny the print was.  I was going through a rough time and needed something lighter and faster paced.  Recently I also passed on an Edward Rutherfurd novel, when 15 years ago I probably would have checked it out.  Another plausible theory could be due to the fact that I have more eyestrain than I used to and it taints my desire for long, involved reads.

When searching out new additions for my TBR on goodreads, I try to thoughtfully evaluate whether I will realistically want to read a particular title or if I would just feel burdened and dread opening the cover. That sounds sort of funny now that I have that typed down.  Why would I want to read anything I’d dread?  Am I such a glutton for self-torture?  I want to read good, meaty, beneficial books.  But the word and page count of a book does not necessarily make it beneficial.  A proverb can be more wisely read than a full assortment of “Grey” romance.

Yet some of the world’s best epics have been told through long-drawn out prose. (Those French and Russian novels for instance…)  But usually their stories are too familiar told through other mediums for me to care to devote so much time to reading.  Maybe one day my interests will change again and I’ll be a reader of “Moby Dick” but I’m not so much a fan of whale blubber right now.

What does constitute me attempting a big fiction book? Just like any other book, it is usually a creative plotline and the adventure that draws me in.  If it has my attention in these areas, I can perhaps forget I’ve spent the last 3 months in this world.  It’s what kept me going through “Titus Groan”, and is what has me interested in someday trying “Shogun,” by James Clavell.

I came to ponder all of this after reading this article entitled “Never Ending Stories.”

What about you? If you’re a reader of long tales, what attracts you to them?

 

Q: How Much Do You Read at a Time?

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

I have a question: How much do you read at a time?

Some people will sit down and devour a whole novel in one sitting because they are so absorbed in it. But, most of us do not have this luxury even if we wished hard for it.  After all, we are busy living our own stories as well!  So just how does a person go about deciding how much to read at a given time?

There really is no right or wrong way to answer this. Even the above example of reading a book in a day is not ‘wrong’, although there are some studies that show a person will not retain as much of what they read if they do not take some breaks or time away from it.  I find this true for me, yet at the same time can also struggle to remember what happened when I take too much time away from break to break.

A lot usually depends on the free time a person has. Actually, I really shouldn’t write ‘free time’, as what time in this world is really free?  Time is more like an investment.  How much time can you afford to invest in reading a particular book?  As some books are light entertainment and others are more like brain exercise, the answer to this question might vary from book to book.

My goal this year had been to read four books a month, whether fiction or non-fiction. As it turns out, I had way too much on my plate for this to become a reality.  I have been lucky if I’ve accomplished reading 2 pages a night!  (I will have to analyze this dilemma further and figure out how to remedy it in the coming year, but more on that later.)  My goal is at least a couple of pages every day if I can’t make it more.  But the point is to not quit reading, no matter how slow it is taking me!

Sometimes when I am reading, I will decide on how much to read at one sitting by how long the chapters are, or the length of sections within a chapter. Sometimes I will be reading in the middle of a dialogue among characters, knowing I have to soon break off to go do something else or go to bed, but not wanting to end it in the middle of the verbal action.  I hate breaking things off like that, and it’s also hard to pick it back up and get in the swing of things later on.  So I usually read to the end of the conversation and break off at a scene change or during lots of narration.

Obviously, the more one can read at a time, the quicker the book will be finished and one can anticipate the next story. People are different in how they like to read, whether they love to slowly savor an interesting book, or prefer to quickly find out what happens next.  How do you like to read?

 

 

 

A Book-Lover’s, List-Lover’s Guide to Reading

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving!  Now we’re headed on for the end of the year and facing a new one to come.  Christmas hasn’t arrived yet, but this is about the time I start thinking about what sort of goals I want to set for myself in the new year to come.  Do I meet all of my resolutions?  No, but at least I can say that I think I improve in certain areas over the course of the following 12 months.

One of the things I look forward to near the end of the year is making my To-Read fiction list.  This is where I sit down and peruse my notebook full of titles of fiction, curating a list of which ones I will aim to conquer reading next year.  This event is a much-anticipated one, since it appeals to the list-lover in me!  It also gets me excited about all the new stories I will be encountering, and gets me motivated to start over and accomplish my goals.

I’ve never been one to just go to the library and randomly pick out whichever fiction book appeals to me at the moment and come home with a stack.  There’s nothing wrong with doing that, but it’s just not me.  I like to plan, scheme, aim, look forward to, time, get excited about, wait, then read.  This makes for more of an experience!

You can make your own list however you like.  But for fun, I’ll share with you the system I’ve developed for myself over time and how I make it work for me:

First I sit down with my To-Read notebook (read article about it here). Starting with Page 1, I go through in order and write down any books I’ve still yet to read until I’ve made a list of 72 titles.  That’s right, 72.  Will I get all of those read?  Goodness, no!  That’s too ambitious for me as I’m no speed reader, but you’ll see why I choose that many in moment.

I may look up some of the titles on goodreads (or even create my list on there to begin with) to refresh my memory on what some of books are about and re-decide if it’s really one I want to read after all.  Some of these titles have been in my notebook ever since I was a teenager and my tastes have somewhat changed over the years.

I never write down a book by more than one author for a given year.  I like to have as much variety as possible.  Gorging too much on one author’s particular style would become boring to me.  So I skip a title in my notebook if it’s a repeat-author.

If I come across a list of books in a particular series, I’ll write down the first title, but skip the rest of the books and save those for other years.  Some may not like to do this because by the time they get around to #2, they may find they’ve forgotten what #1 was about.  But I don’t really worry about this for myself.  (I can always go back and read my book reviews on this blog, after all!)  If I have already read some of the books in the series in the past, then I just go with the next in chronological order.

Once I have my list of 72, I then make out a list on a different sheet of paper that looks like this:

January:

A-1)

2)

3)

B-1)

2)

3)

…and so on for the rest of the 12 months.  Again, in reality I cannot finish 6 fiction books in one month, but are you still with me?  Next, I reassign my 72 titles to my new list, choosing which month to put them under according to what season I think I would most like to read it in (you can read my article on this topic here).

The letter A stands for the first half of every month (for ex., Jan. 1-15).  B, obviously stands for the latter half (16-31).  Since most of the books I read are titles I want in particular, my small local library usually doesn’t have them in its collection.  This is why I utilize the interlibrary loan system so frequently.  Unfortunately, I have to wait for a while, usually 1-2 weeks after I’ve place an order in the state library system, so I plan to order it in advance of immediately needing it.  When do I do this?  I estimate that about the time I’ve reached the halfway marker in my current fiction novel, I will need to order the next one on my list to give it time to arrive.  That way I’m not in agony after I’ve finished one book, waiting for the next.

This is where my special system comes in handy!  When it’s time to choose which book to order/check out next, I reference my list.  What time of year is it currently?  Let’s say I’m ordering a book now, which makes it November B on my list.  I start with B#1, which is: “Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Thief,” by Maurice le Blanc.  Oh, fun!  Now I can order it.

Usually this book will keep me preoccupied for abt. 2 weeks, unless I’m being particularly slow-pokey.  The next time I’ll be ordering a book from my list will probably be when it’s December A (which would be: “Nightbringer,” by James Byron Huggins) .  But let’s say Arsene Lupin was a fast read and it’s time to order my next book and it’s still November B.  That’s when I look up Nov. B#2, which is: “I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree,” by Laura Hillman.  But wait.  What if it’s unavailable in the system for whatever reason?  Not to worry, I’ve prepared for this.  I just go on to Nov. B#3: “The Amazing Interlude,” by Mary Roberts Rinehart.

See?  It all makes complete sense now, I hope!  For list-makers, this process is a joy that will probably take an afternoon and we will savor it the whole long while.  For others who like to live more randomly, they will probably have given up on this blogpost a long time ago and are nursing a headache.  🙂

What are some of your methods for determining what to read?  Share them with me, I’d love to know!

 

Slowing Down

Some people are speed readers. I am not one of those people. Some people can read a whole novel in a day. The last time I accomplished this was when I was 12 years old on a summer afternoon reading a Nancy Drew mystery. I do everything slowly. I guess everyone has their natural pace. I like to do one thing at a time in an unhurried manner, and dislike multitasking. In fact, I actually take longer when I try to hurry! When it comes to reading, I generally prefer to take my time through a book, thinking, copying out quotes, and of course reading out loud and doing all the voices to involve myself more in the story.

I remember watching an infomercial on tv when I was young, where this “mr. amazing man” could skim read through a whole chapter in about 1 min. and then relate to the host what it was about.  (For the record, I didn’t really believe him.)  If you bought their course for a certain price, they could teach all students the skills they needed to skim any book and it would change their life FOREVER!  When I was middle school, I had a friend who read voraciously.  One time she checked “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” out of the school library and read that 629 page-book (I know, because I looked) between classes, in 3 days.  Maybe this feat is easy as pie to some folks, but I remember wondering if she really understood what she was reading. I also know a friend who admits she skips over the ‘boring narrative’ just to get to the action and dialogue scenes.

I wonder why it’s tempting to read so fast. I guess when you think about it, our culture is increasingly fast paced in everything we do, so why would our reading habits escape this speed? We could also consider our general attitude of instant gratification and the fact that we’re not used to having to wait for much in life. Texting’s quicker than calling. Microwave popcorn. EZ Pass. Instant mashed potatoes. And so when we sit down to read, we can’t wait to see what happens. Many readers don’t have the patience to persevere through parts that don’t meet their immediate interests.  What a long way we’ve come from books being published in serial form in magazines some 100 years ago!  Some people even flip to the back of the book to see what happens first and read the story backwards! Another reason for skim reading could be that we are so goal driven that the more books we can add to our list of accomplishments the better. It ceases to be about stories and becomes more list oriented.

Good books are not meant to be inhaled. If you’re a writer, do you want your readers to skim their way through what you put your heart and soul into? It’s like putting the mind on auto-numb when we read like this. There are emotions to be felt, words to be appreciated, atmosphere to be sensed, ideas to process, and characters to get to know over time.

I think there can be exceptions to the rule.  For example, sometimes I don’t want to commit myself to a particular book for whatever reason, but I’m curious to see what happened in the end, so I’ll flip to the back.  There are also times when I feel a certain scene gets a little too steamy for my taste (yes, sometimes even in some Christian fiction books), and I decide it’s in my best interest to skip over it.  And of course, there are always those fun exceptions when we get ahold of a book that’s so hard to put down and we spend half the night reading away. Sometimes, that is almost half the fun of the experience of reading. But for the most part, those times are rare and I don’t think it’s healthy to read habitually like this. My point is that the story may not be enjoyed as in-depth as it could be when it’s sped through.

I once read that chapter breaks and breaks within chapters are partly designed to make the reader pause more often in a book. Something about the brain retains the beginnings and endings of what they read, so the idea is that the more breaking off a reader does, the more they remember. I think this is true for me. I find that the books I read more quickly are the more quickly forgotten.

Are you generally a speed reader who would like to learn to slow down a little? Here are some ways to think about taking your time through a book:

1) Back off of the goals. It’s fine to set reading goals, but if this is your main objective you might not be enjoying the process of reading like you could be. Just take one book at a time.

2) Read out loud. I know I harp on this aspect of reading a lot (that’s part of the point of my blog actually, if you haven’t noticed!). But it causes you to hear the words you’re reading aloud. You can appreciate the author’s choice of language strung together better. You feel the words forming out of your mouth. Reading becomes an art form. It slows you down and elminates skim reading.

3) Be on the lookout for good quotes to copy out. You’ll be searching for gems, discerning what’s inspiring enough to be quote-worthy.

4) Try limiting your reading to one chapter a day. Or one hour a day. Or a specific time in the day. Even when you break off at a really intriguing part in the book, make yourself wait until the next day to see what happens next. This will cause you to think about the character and the story in-between times and you’ll be wondering what happens next. That is a good feeling and it means it’s a good book! The best part of a book is the “To Be Continued…” part. Enjoy the feeling of suspense!

5) And for goodness sake, don’t skip! Yes, sometimes even reading can be hard work, but if it’s a good book it has it’s benefits. Persevere! Read the book the way it was intended. This means from front to back. In chronological order. Every paragraph.  Every sentence. I

f you’re naturally a speed reader, what are some reasons you like to read this way?  Are there any tips you’ve learned to slow down?

 

Doing a Little Weeding

Hi! I thought I’d write a little post concerning what’s going on in my reading world lately…

I recently filled an entire composition notebook with titles of fiction books I want to read someday. (I should probably clarify and say that each title and series are separated by at least 2 lines to keep it looking orderly, so not every line is filled.) I started keeping a notebook when I was about 15, and have graduated to bigger and bigger notebooks, but each time I was transferring the same titles and discarding the old one. I’ve debated on what to do now that I have one whole notebook full and don’t want to go to a larger, spiral-bound. I guess I’ll have to go to 2 notebooks (besides my third non-fiction one), but I don’t really relish the idea of so many notebooks! So, the jury’s still out on that for now.

I used to think that I had to read every book by every classic author I liked (Frances Hodgson Burnett, Eleanor H. Porter, Alexandre Dumas).  I think this is because I wanted to be able to say, “‘The Memoirs of a Physician?’  Oh, yes.  I’ve read that…” and sound really intellectual and know-it-all.  The lists of their complete works took up a lot of space in my notebook. Eventually I realized that I don’t have anything to prove, and that I may not actually be interested in everything anyway. There’s nothing that will kill the spirit of reading quicker than reading something you’re completely uninterested in. So I decided to do a little weeding. I went through my titles and if I couldn’t remember what a book was about, or came across one of those “Complete Works of E. Phillips Oppenheim” -type lists, I looked up the titles on the internet (like goodreads; Fantastic Fiction; wikipedia; amazon, etc.). I read plot summaries and reader reviews, and if it just seemed like something I wouldn’t be thrilled to read, I crossed it out. Also, if I couldn’t find a plot summary at all, I crossed them out. I decided if I didn’t know what a book was about in the first place, there was no reason why I should include it in my list.

I saved a LOT of room this way! Of course, now that room is taken up with other books, but at least they’re books I want to read instead of books I feel I have to read. I have no time or desire to invest in doing that anymore; there are other books I’d rather read and time’s short enough as it is.

Tastes change over time. I’m glad to see I don’t necessarily want to read the same books as when I was 15. It shows me I’ve grown at least somewhat in my reading habits!