It’s probably because I’ve been reading Julie & Julia, but I’m struck with the idea of turning something I’m going to do anyway into a project. What am I going to do anyway? Read. What would the project be? Simply to do what I’ve always tried to do…read 50 books in a year. In this case, I have the 50 books in four piles in my bedroom. They are the books I have collected over the past five years as I worked on my dissertation. Don’t get me wrong: I never stopped reading non-academic materials. According to LibraryThing, I read 55 books in 2008 and 46 books in 2007. Some of them were school-related but many were personal interest. So, 50 books just represent a year of reading for me.
In the past, as I worked on my 50 books, I didn’t have a set reading list but simply moved from one book to the next. Sometimes, I read books in a series (such as Sharon Kay Penman’s historical fiction set in the 13th century) but I’m definitely a grazer. These 50 books never came under my nose I guess. Some are very new…just purchased at the Book Exchange last week with points from my summer trade ins. Others have been laying around for a while, as long as two or three years, and come from a variety of places. There are four or five Wendell Berry books, both fiction and nonfiction, that came from a great book store in Lexington, Virginia, along with Drew Gilpin’s This Republic of Suffering. There are lots of books from another great book store in Roanoke, Virginia. And a few from Baldwin Books in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
I’ll get the whole stack in LibraryThing and tag them “unread.” I’m going to use the rest of 2009 to finish up some loose ends and then begin on the pile on January 1, 2010. I think I’m going to start with David McCullough’s biography of John Adams. I’ll be on winter break from William and Mary and can curl up be the wood stove and relive the birth of America.
I’m also making a pledge not to buy any more books until I’ve read all 50 of these books. Hmm…not sure I can do it. Books for book group could be an exception. Why this worry over books? My house is stuff with them, and I’m just trying to reduce stuff in general. I’m definitely a bibliophile and my book shelves provide insight into the story of my life. But I can’t just keep collecting. I need to start reading.
And that’s why this needs to be a project. Because of the fear I have that I will somehow lose track of my love of reading. Several people have told me that they didn’t read anything for a year after they finished their doctorates. And I do find myself often putting reading aside to engage in other activities. I don’t want to NOT read but I find myself stymied by the books on the shelves so it may take several days for me to choose a new book. And despite paying for Kindle subscriptions to the New York Times, the Washington Post, and several magazines, I rarely read any of them. I’m hoping a project will help. I’m also hoping that limiting my choices to just 50 books will make it easier to choose and read books.
What about the newspapers and magazines? I never got into the habit of reading the newspaper every day. I have a print subscription to US News and World Report and do glance through that, but I certainly don’t read it from beginning to end. Then there’s the weekly education newspaper and several research journals. The words are piling up around me and I’m feeling the pressure. How do people find time to read a newspaper every day? Actually, as part of my first job as a press office secretary at an art museum, I read three or four papers every day looking for articles related to art. I did a lot of skimming.
I’m not sure where newspapers and magazines fit into my day? Lunch time? Take a work break and at least do some skimming? I’m discovering that the hardest part of working from home is adopting some kind of schedule. People with real jobs have a built in schedule but I’m a free agent. I have projects to finish but no one cares if I work on them at 2 PM or 2 AM. Just so I get them done. The danger, of course, is that you can work all the time so working in things like reading the newspaper is a way to take breaks.
So, I’m pledging my self to reading. I’ll report the results here. Now, I’m heading to bed with a book; in this case, it’s How God Changes Your Brain.
