Thursday, January 3, 2013

Read - Word of 2013

I used to be the world's biggest bookworm. Nobody recognized my face because there was always a book in front of it. In fact, I used to read a book during my 20 minute walk to school every morning from 8 years old to 11 years old. Then I read on the bus for the rest of my teen years. I would go to bed at 9pm every night, and often read until 2 or 3 in the morning. My bookshelves still suffer under the weight of all my books, and I come home with new ones regularly.

But somewhere in the last 5 years I stopped reading books. Well, I didn't really stop completely, but there has been a significant slow down. I started to feel too busy to read. Not only that, for the last 3 or 4 years I've spent the better part of every day online, reading and writing. I've become so accustomed to reading online that all of my speed is there now.

Just the other night I read a 140+ page e-book in a couple of hours. And it's because I've gotten so good at filtering what I see on my screen. I use keywords, formatting and page breaks as cues on where to read. But that's just not reading.

I miss holding a book in my hands, turning pages and pouring over every page. I'm still a pretty quick reader with paper books, but I don't scan, I read every word (including footnotes).

I used 2012 to get back into reading. I started the year deciding I would join the #26in2012 group, read 26 books in one year, one every two weeks. Seemed completely doable. There were times I would read 3 or 4 books in a couple of weeks. But I just couldn't do it. Turns out I think every time I sit down to read a book that I am wasting time and could be doing something else. I don't like that feeling.

About midway through the year I decided to join a book club. I love it because we read non-fiction, my favourite type of book. It also becomes easier to take the time to read because I can justify it to myself as work when they are books about business or community. Plus I have the expectation from the rest of the group that I will finish the book. I still struggle with setting aside the time to read, but I think I did well this year.

In 2013 however, I plan to read way more. I've started a list of books to read. I still know that I learn more from reading a full book than I do from reading a blog post or article. And I learn best by reading, not by watching or listening. So I will take the momentum I've created in 2012 and push forward this year and read, learn and implement more.

*note - these aren't all the books I read this year they are just the ones I took pictures of. Some of them I haven't even started reading yet.





The best way to read!

The second best way to read!



 

 

2 comments:

  1. Do you ever listen to audiobooks? I'm a fan of them because I can clean, feel productive and less weighed down by guilt (sigh) over lost time and unfinished tasks. There are also some incredible voice actors too! Jim Dale, Katherine Kellgren, and my absolute favourite - Neil Gaiman himself - who has the perfect late night, story time voice (and can do all the accents too).

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    1. I don't listen to audiobooks because I listen to so many podcasts. I have at least about 25 shows I tune into regularly. If my headphones are in my ears or I don't have a book in my hands, or a video on my screen, I am listening to a podcast.

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