Happy New Year, my reading friends! My reading life (and thus, my writing here) was very sporadic during 2019. I’m ashamed to admit that I only read 21 books last year. My goal was 35. Obviously I fell short. That’s never a good feeling.
Recently, I viewed Brandon Vogt’s online seminar about how to double your reading next year over on claritasu.com. Brandon has some really neat ideas to share and I found the seminar worth the $1 that I had to pay for a trial subscription. (I promptly cancelled because none of the other videos seemed that relevant to my personal faith journey, but I do think it is worth a look. The videos seem to be done at a very high caliber.) After considering Brandon’s statements, I decided to take the challenge and set a goal to double last year’s reading. That means I’m setting a goal of reading 40 books in the next 12 months. What can I say? I like round numbers and just couldn’t bring myself to looking at the number 42 all year long. LOL
What will that mean? It means some changes in mindset for me first of all. Rather than trying to read a book every week, I’m simply committing to reading at least 30 minutes every day. I’ll have several books going at the same time so my reading can go wherever my interest leads me. “Reading” will also include audio books….so my time in the car can also be used toward my reading goal. I really don’t know how this is going to go for me. Having so many books going at the same time might be a total disaster. I just don’t know. Currently, I’m working my way through 3 books: 1) a novel from My Library Shelf project, 2) a massive biography of the composer Johannes Brahms, and 3) an audiobook.
I plan to use this blog as an accountability tool. The brief book reviews you have come to know (and hopefully love) will continue as I read through the year. In addition, I am going to post each Saturday with an update of how the reading has gone for the week. I’ll admit when I haven’t done much reading and share the challenges I’m facing. I’ll also share glimpses into some of the reading that I am really enjoying and what is sitting in the pile waiting for my attention next.
I hope you will join me for the journey. As always, I love to hear from you and to get your responses to the books. Now it’s time to put the iPad away and transport myself back to the story of a few women who have found themselves in the undesirable position of being food tasters for Hitler during the war….but I’ll tell you more about that one in the days ahead.
Happy reading!
Kennith
Reading for Me 