Despite the number of people this year who increased (or discovered) their reading habits during quarantine, mine suffered.
My general focus was lost and it took quite some time to regain it. The usual pace of 90-110 books a year dropped to 70, which is still significant considering many consider 50 a prolific number.
However, a goal for next year is to simplify my processes and one of those is getting rid of vanity metrics. The number of books I read over the past few years has been less about enjoyment and more about volume, especially as an English teacher (leading by example).
While I still plan to complete Operation: ROL, I want to make sure it’s done while following my own advice to students:
Only read what interests you and challenges you.
Hence, my reading list for next year:
The fantasy series has been in my buffer for a while, the fiction titles were highly recommended, The Power Broker is one I promised to come back to and The Future of Text is a general interest.
There are only 13 books in that tower, but the goal is to keep me off the metric of number of books and re-introduce myself to focused, sustained reading for pleasure.
Also, I’ve also made the decision to stop doing book reviews.
While I do my best to keep each one positive, I fear they don’t actually serve a good purpose. A review, after all, is simply a personal opinion.
Nothing more.
If I didn’t like a book, it’s because I didn’t like it. Others may and I would be horrified if I ever deterred someone from reading something that would open a doorway into literature for them.
On the other end, liking a book is also a matter of personal tastes. I would be equally horrified if a positive review catapulted someone into reading something they hated.
But, and this is the biggest one, I’ve had many requests from authors and smaller publishers to do reviews. All for exposure, of course!
I learned my lesson about exposure dollars from being a magician and no one is going to take my time and energy to read a book I had no interest in, by somebody I don’t know, to write a review I may later regret.
That time could be better spent on other areas of life, especially those needing my attention at the moment.
The steps toward simplicity starts now.