Reading for Me

I am very happy to say that I’ve gotten back on track with my reading goals this week. I have read for pleasure for at least 30 minutes on 6 days this week. It feels good to get back to a somewhat normal routine for a couple of days.

What did I read? Finally finished reading The Long War…..still need to write the review even though it will be short and to the point. Continued picking up tips from Getting Things Done and started a new novel – The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. I’m already in love with this novel and only 80 pages in.

The week ahead will bring challenges to my reading with recitals, hearings, and another recruitment tour. Since I have a novel that has enthralled me, I know I have a chance to keep reading because I want to know what happens next!

Greetings from Denton, Texas! I’ve been in town for a couple of days to collaborate with my friend, Robert Cardwell, in his final lecture recital for the Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Texas. The program went off without a hitch and he passed his oral defense. Yeah!

The week has been busy (obviously), but I have managed to get back into a reading routine. Still haven’t finished any of my current works, but I think I should have a couple finished in the next few days. I certainly hope so! It feels as though I have been plowing through some of these for an eternity.

The Long War is coming to an end. I’m within a hundred pages of the novel’s conclusion. Every time I read the next installment in this sci-fi series by Terry Pratchett, I am reminded of just how much I don’t like the genre. Unfortunately, I have several more of Pratchett’s works to read on My Library Shelf project. That may be the thing that is the undoing of that shelf.

While driving, I returned to my audio book. I am enjoying You Should Talk to Somebody About That, but it seems as though is an exceptionally long listen. I’ve been listening off and on for almost a month and I still have 4 hours to go! I’m devoting most of my drive home tomorrow to the book and should get it finished this week. Probably not going to pick up another audio book for a while. I’m just not in the car often enough to make any progress through the books in this format.

At the beginning of the week, I returned to a perennial favorite in the area of time management. Getting Things Done always helps me get organized when I feel as though my world is crumbling around me. I picked it up again on Sunday and started working my way through it. I’ve not read much of it in the past few days because I’m trying to get The Long War off of my reading list at the moment. If I pick up anything else at this moment, I know that it will be a while before I return to the horrible novel. And one of the things on my to-do list this week is to finish that blasted book!

Well, the inevitable finally happened this week. After a wonderful daily reading streak that had lasted for 33 days, I missed my first day of reading in 2020 on Monday. I knew it would happen eventually. There are so many things that can get in the way of pleasure reading. It was only a matter of time.

What happened? Those who follow my personal social media accounts saw the pictures. On Sunday, I traveled to El Paso with my best friend for a couple of days of high school visits and recruiting. Monday was a long day — 3 high school visits, a business dinner, and then processing the exciting information we received at dinner. Maybe it’s just me, but I find it extremely difficult to read a book when I am around other people. I can’t block them out to dive into the written word. If I’m with a good friend, the act of reading can be rather rude. The book will be there later; my friend won’t be.

So, no reading for 2 days this week. I wasn’t horribly upset by the turn of events because I found myself looking forward to getting home and returning to my reading schedule. Love for reading had not diminished. My time was just at a premium for a moment. Unfortunately, I anticipate facing a similar dilemma in the coming week. Anthony and I will hit the road again on Tuesday — this time, we will take on San Antonio and the Texas Music Educators’ Association’s annual convention. It is a different kind of work, but it is still going to be challenging to fit quality reading in. I’ll pack a book in my backpack and see what I can accomplish during those long days at the recruiting booth.

Once again this week, I didn’t complete a book. I’m about halfway through The Long War and ready for it to be over. I’m ready to move on to another novel. I’ve also found myself drawn back into the Brahms biography as the week came to a close. I am enjoying learning more about the composer, but that is such heavy reading that I can’t do much of it at a time. My goal for the week ahead — even with the travel ahead — is to finish The Long War as well as the Young Adult novel that sits in my TBR stack. I’m anxious to dive into some of the books that are piled high on the corner of my kitchen island as well. So many books…..so little time.

What a week this has been! The school semester’s third week came to a close and I found myself frantically trying to get everything done as I prepare for travel in the coming weeks. As a result of my work life, my reading life took a hit this week. I did not complete a new book at all this week.

Things could have been much worse though. There were nights when I was simply too tired to read a single page….much less 30 minutes of reading. As soon as I saw the streak on my habit tracker, I found inspiration to push myself for 30 minutes of reading. I couldn’t let my streak come to a halt just before I reached a solid month of reading! And I’m happy to say that my streak is still alive with 31 total days of consecutive reading as of the time that I am writing this post! (I’ll get day 32 finished in just a few minutes as well.)

Since I have not completed a book this week, what have I been reading? I continued to make some progress in the Jan Swafford biography of the composer Johannes Brahms. I really do enjoy reading this work, but it is a slow read for me. I began working my way through The Long War as well, but I’m struggling to connect with the storyline so far. Honestly, nothing is really striking my reading fancy at the moment. That makes me a little nervous about my reading life in the next few days. I’ll be traveling with my best friend to do some recruiting in the El Paso schools. It has always been a challenge for me to read while I’m on the road — especially when traveling with another person. I’m gonna grab my book light and see if I can keep the streak going while I’m away. I know that I will eventually run into a day where I don’t make my goal….but I don’t want to even think about that day’s arrival any time soon!

So what’s my plan? I’m trying to push through The Long War, but I’m not going to take the Brahms with me on my road trip. That’s just not good reading for me while I’m out of pocket. I’m trying to decide if I should grab another novel or some non-fiction to see if a change of genre will grab my attention a bit more. I’ll figure all of that out tomorrow though. Right now, I’m beginning to feel the first effects of a very long day in the office (yep…..on a Saturday!) and want to make sure that I get my reading in for the night before I drift off to sleep.