One of my resolutions for this year was to read more, watch TV less.  And other than the two days I was feeling really sick, I have maintained my goal of not watching TV during the day.

It has led to some truly great reading.

I have a terrible habit of starting a book, marking my place with a bookmark and then leaving it … sometimes for years.  Case in point — beside my bed sit Empire of the Summer Moon, Failing Up, and Thanks a Thousand plus the US Constitution with selections from the Federalist Papers.  I have begun all of them, and have made my way to varying points in them, but I have finished none of them.

On my shelves downstairs I have begun Beginners Guide to Insight Meditation, Tao Te Ching 101, Joan Didion 1960s & 1970s: A Collection, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, The Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali, First Man, Becoming, Turn Right at Machu Picchu, The Wright Brothers, Notes from a Small Island and my current read Give Your Heart to the Hawks.  

On my Nook … (this is where it starts to get embarrassing) The Vanishing Half (I was invited to join a book club and this is the first book!!), A Secret History of Witches, My Life with the Eskimo, How to Be Anti-Racist, Between the World and Me, The Goldfinch, and The Incendiaries. 

And let me be clear … these are just the books that I’ve started to read.  This list does not include all the books I own and have not yet cracked open.

I love to read.  I have found that, as an adult, I haven’t been doing that much of it consistently.  It has been my 2021 resolution to get more reading done and despite the Herculean list above of unfinished tomes, I have managed to complete American Buffalo, Why Buddhism is True and A Ride to Eternity (written by one of my Dad’s fraternity brothers about the murder of his aunt in 1939- painfully sad, bizarrely compelling and absolutely fascinating).

It isn’t that I don’t want to finish the books — it’s about finding the time and concentration in a world that has us (myself included!) trained to consume our information in sound bytes and 140 character click bait.

Hubs and I decided that we need to devote more time to reading because we both love it. (He always says, “I never regret the time I spend reading.”)  Today has been spent nose deep in books, piano music on in the background, with lunch breaks and a Lucy bath thrown in for fun (well, maybe not for her!).

I feel supremely blessed to have a partner in life who loves and values the things I love and value.

Xox, g