I read 22 books in 2012 … disgraceful, I know. But between the drama of life; reading books all day and manuscripts all evening for work; and a huge list of other hobbies to get on with – books took second place.
So, when the New Year came around I added a reading resolution to the list. I would double the number of books I read – I’d get to 44. OK, so it’s quite a modest target, but I wanted something realistic that I could actually achieve.
Fast forward 6 months, and I’m on 22 books finished, so technically I’m on track. But I’m an overachiever (if you haven’t guessed) and am still disappointed with my achievements. Why? It’s my exponentially increasing TBR (to be read) list. Granted, I have an addiction to buying books, but I seriously need to be getting through them faster, there’s simply not enough space on my shelves.
I’ve realised there’s two reason why I read so slowly: firstly, it takes me forever to choose a book; I’ll stand in front of my bookshelf for ages looking at all the options. After about 10 minutes I’ll give up and end up doing something else. Secondly, I don’t actually make any time to read – I’ll read on the train on the way to and from work, but 15 minutes is definitely not enough time to get into a book.
Thankfully, my bookish friends helped me solve the first problem – they told me to make a TBR jar – i.e. write the names of 20 titles I really want to read on scraps of paper and put them in a jar. Each time I finish a book, I pick out another from the jar, saving me the job of trying to choose myself. I solved my second problem by setting myself the challenge of reading 70 pages a day. It’s a modest limit again but knowing me, I’ll get into the story and read more.
Hopefully with my two new targets I’ll not only hit my resolution but I’ll smash it… well, one can only hope!
A Literary Mind 