Reading Challenge - Introductions

Reading has always been my main form of entertainment. I’d much rather pick up a book and escape into a world woven together with words and imagination than passively watch a tv show or movie. Don’t get me wrong, I love tv and movies too, but active entertainment they are not. I can’t get swept up into a tv world like I can a book world. So I was rather disappointed with myself when over the last year, Netflix became my go-to entertainment. But last year I needed to be passive. I hadn’t the energy to do much and getting emotionally involved in a book? Well, that was way too much commitment on my part.

As I’ve said, reading was something that I pushed to the side in 2014. Not this year. 2015 is the year of Doing Stuff! And stuff has got to be read!

One of the blogs I follow posted this 2015 Reading Challenge from PopSugar. And I dig it. It is vague enough that I can customize it to fit my favorite genres and subjects but detailed enough that finding books to fit it will require thought and effort.

I need to make an effort right now.

Throw in my BFF and I’ve got a ready made book club reading challenge. Hey, Sara, shall we post reviews on our respective blogs? I’ve noticed a lack of blogging on your part lately too. Granted you’ve been busy with Baby, so I completely get it. No worries or pressure.

Even if Sara does not, I’ll post my reviews of what we read. Which should be interesting since the majority of my reviews of things tend to be: “I liked it.” “I hated it.” Or the ever popular, “Meh.” I’ll try to be a bit more descriptive than that. Sara picked the first book: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn which covers the Mystery/Thriller book. Given that I don’t tend to read reviews often, my only real knowledge of Gone Girl is: 1. It’s quite popular, 2. They made a movie, 3. A wife disappeared.

I started reading Gone Girl on the 1st and I was pretty much hooked from the first couple of pages. So it looks very promising.

Cramped For Space

1300 square feet is actually not all that much space, especially coming from 1700 square feet and an attic. I am discovering just how attached I am to certain things (like books and crafts) and how completely unattached I am to other things (please explain to me why I have four queen-sized comforters/quilts).

Before we moved, I did a lot of dejunking. A lot. Bags and bags of books donated to the library, boxes of miscellaneous mismatched dishes, old linens and clothes. As much as I thought I could get rid of, I did.

But I am finding that it wasn’t enough.

We have a great deal of storage space but it is all outside storage. And right now, I am a bit concerned for my many boxes of Christmas decorations, teaching supplies, crafts and books that are in a hostile environment.

Oh! The humidity. The blazing heat. And let’s not get started on the bugs.

I went to Barnes and Noble today to browse because I have a gift card (yes this is related). I picked up nearly a dozen books throughout my leisurely stroll around the store. Yet every book I picked up went back on the shelf. I can wait until the library has it, I thought. I’ve got a ton of books that I just checked out from the library. And then, a most horrific thought: Where exactly would I put this book? On what shelf?

Ugh.

Ready to leave, I walked to the front door empty handed right past the shiny display of Nooks and the delightful saleslady making an exuberant pitch to a little old lady.

I paused. I picked up a display Nook secured tightly to the counter with a white springy wire. I pressed a few buttons and the screen whizzed into action: menus, demos, apps. I sighed quietly at the price and put the Nook back on its display shelf.

I turned to leave and the saleslady caught my eye for just a second. Her glance clearly screamed, “No! Don’t walk away! I know you want this and I will be right with you! Please!”

I smiled and walked out of the store.

Sigh.

1300 square feet is just almost enough motivation and justification for buying an e-reader.

But then I think to myself, there is just something so nice about flipping the pages in a book, the smell of the paper, the stiffness of the spine.

I am sure one day, I’ll get an e-reader or the next Great Thing, but it will be the day when books are no longer published on paper. A day when paper maybe too costly to use or too rare.
And that day, my Friends, that day makes me sad.