📖 How many books will you read this winter? - ONE! Only one.

You know when it’s new years eve and you make all these ambitious plans to finally turn your life around, and start going to the gym four times a week, and read four books a month, and stop eating so many carbs and sweets and be a better person?

Well, I’m done with that. I am making peace with the fact that my body is naturally lazy and I’ll just go to the gym twice a week because I have to, because I’m fifty and if I don’t my body will fall apart.

I’ve also accepted that devouring book after book is no longer serving my intellectual needs. I did it in grad school and then again during my PhD, and, honestly, it works in the short term but I have forgotten most stuff I fast-read for the purposes of a class. I remember one grad class at UCLA where we devoted two weeks to 100 years of solitude. This was one of three classes that quarter. For my History class I had to provide one book report per week on top of the weekly reading, and for my French class I had to read the book of the City of Ladies in French. Fascinating stuff but something had to give, and that something was 100 years of solitude which I read on Cliffnotes. Yes, I’m not proud, but there’s only that much space in my hard drive, and eventually my processor burned out.

I realized that grad school is not a time to enjoy literature, as your brain is busy constantly updating its operating system, taking in new approaches, theories and ideas. But I’m not in grad school anymore. I lived at this frenetic pace for a good part of my adult life (it took me 9 years to finish my PhD, but that’s a story for another time) and now I’m done feeling guilty for all the half-finished or unopened books at my bookcase.

This time I picked ONE. Just one. And I’ll take my sweet time with it. I’ll savour the language, I’ll analyze the ideas, I’ll find the conflicts and the patterns that make up its identity. I’ll treat is a new friend that I’ll get to know in depth. So, when I finish this book, I’ll remember it forever.

If you relate and you’d like to follow along, join me on my blog, where I’ll be sharing my thoughts. And please feel free to join the conversation in the comments!

Happy readings!