I only made one official New Year’s resolution this year: Keep a record of each book I read in 2018 and include a few lines about why I love – or hate – it.
I read a LOT in a year and I’d like to find out just how many books that adds up to in 52 weeks. Books are good for sick days, Saturday mornings, and always, always part of my bedtime routine (toddlers aren’t the only ones who like routines).
How can I even begin to explain my love for books? If you’re a reader, you get it. The joy of being transported somewhere else, jumping into someone else’s story — which helps me make better sense of my own.
I do have a few reading rules, though. I’m sure you do, too, if you really take the time to think about it. Here are a few of mine:
- I don’t waste time continuing to read a book I’m not enjoying
- But I will skip to the last page to see how it ends if it held my interest at all.
I tend to like memoirs about women who have overcome emotional or business struggles, novels about women and their friendships and non-fiction about parenting.- I get most of my books at the library to save money and space.
- If I love a book and think it would be great to re-read, I’ll buy it. Never novels, though, unless they’re written by friends. Business books or memoirs only.
- If I pick up a book at the library or a book store and don’t put it down until page 5, I’ll buy or check it out because that means it’s compelling enough.
- Alternately, if it doesn’t hold my attention past page one, time’s up. So many books so little time.
- I do judge books by their covers. But the page 5 rule still applies and I can get past my initial judgment.
- I never bend the pages. That’s what book marks are for.
- But the book marks I use are never book marks, even though I’ve been given plenty of beautiful ones as gifts.
I’ve used all kinds of crazy things as book marks, so it’s definitely a rule that I have to leaf through each book thoroughly before returning it at the library. Gum wrappers, important documents, a fingernail file, ripped-out magazine pages, flowers, and once, a big fat check. So glad I found that “book mark” before placing the book on the conveyor belt!
What are your reading rules? Got any good book suggestions for 2018? Tell me in comments or over on Facebook!
