Month: February 2021

How To Make Time for Reading

~ Joy O'Toole ~ 2 Comments
Books I’m currently reading with my reading journal

As part of my planning and organization, I purposely set up time for reading. Planning experts talk about the Eisenhower Grid, which divides things into four categories: urgent and important, urgent and non-important; non-urgent and important; and non-urgent and non-important. I will unpack those more in a future blog post, but for most of us, reading tends to falls into the category of non-urgent and important.

Why is this so? For one thing reading doesn’t have a deadline, unless you are a student or have to read something for work. Books just sit quietly on their shelves and while passing them by might make you feel guilty for a moment, they aren’t going to jump down and tackle you. If you’re not in school, no teacher is going to test you on that book you want to read. Even if you add it to your Goodreads “Currently Reading” list, it’s unlikely that anyone will say something if it lingers there for months, or you quietly move it back on the To Read shelf. I know this because I have done that more than once, and no one has ever asked me about it.

So, while reading is not usually urgent, it is important, because reading allows you to grow as a person by learning new things. Putting yourself in another place or another person’s shoes or another time helps you develop compassion and insight. Reading expands your mind and your heart.

Therefore, if reading is important but it doesn’t reach out and grab you, it’s up to you to make time for it. The easiest way to make sure I have regular time for books and article is to schedule it into my regular rhythms and routines.

Morning is set aside for devotional and intellectual study since that’s when my mind is most able to chew on meaty topics. By lunch time, I’m ready for some good nonfiction or serious fiction, which I read while I eat or listen to while walking. By the time evening rolls around, my mind is done for the day, and often I’m only able to read easier fiction, light essays, or a fun memoir.

I like to read articles from magazines and blogs but don’t have time for those during the work week. Several years ago, I discovered Instapaper, which allows me to gather articles together and then send them in batches to my kindle. Once a week, usually on the weekend, I sit down with a batch or two of articles and read through them. Some I skim quickly while others are worth thinking more deeply about. The beauty of having them converted to kindle documents is that I can highlight or make notes on points I want to study further or use in my future writing.

Other things I consider are my energy, emotions, and the season of the year. After considering the time of day, I also consider whether it’s the beginning of the week and/or the weekend when I have more energy. If things in my life are difficult, I will sometimes read for escape. For instance, I went on a murder mystery binge during the pandemic. Mysteries are my favorite genre and rereading old favorites was especially helpful when I didn’t want to think about the outside world for a couple of hours. My reading also tends to follow the seasons of the year—reflective reading and rereading in winter, more challenging reading in spring and fall, and mostly fun reading in the summer.

A key part of making time for books is knowing what I’m going to read next. I like to have several books lined up, some light and some heavier reading, so that when I finish a book, I don’t have to hunt around for another. That hunting tends to lead me down rabbit trails on the internet, and I lose all of my reading time to deciding what I’m in the mood for. If I have several good titles of varying difficulty and genre already chosen, I can almost always just pick one up and jump right in.

I get my ideas for titles to read next from what’s new at the library, book blogs and podcasts, and suggestions from friends and fellow librarians. Since part of my job is to read about books, I often have more books in mind than I can possibly read. An endless to-be-read list is one way to ensure I always have my next book waiting for me to pick it up.

Planning ahead and arranging my time and energy allows me to establish rhythms of reading into my days and weeks. How do you fit reading into your life? Please share in the comments.

Reading in 2021

~ Joy O'Toole ~ 4 Comments
February Choices. Not pictured: Wintering by Katherine May, an ebook.

One of my goals for 2021 is to be more intentional in my reading. Last year, along with many others, I did a lot of comfort reading. That was fine, and I don’t regret it, but there are areas in which I’d like to grow in my reading life. Growth will only occur if I’m deliberate since I’d much rather just pick up one more murder mystery.

One thing that helped a lot in my planning was listening to Episode 265 of the What Should I Read Next podcast. Anne’s guest Laura Tremaine had ten questions to ask about your reading life. I journaled through these questions and came up with some ideas on how I wanted to approach my reading in 2021.

Also, I downloaded the Literary Life podcast 19 in 2021 reading challenge and the Modern Mrs. Darcy reading challenge. Since the MMD challenge was more of a worksheet on how you want your reading life to look, I was able to combine the two challenges to give me a good list of areas in which to read this year.

Here are the categories I hope to tackle in 2021. These include both challenges plus some work reading:

  • Poetry – They suggested an anthology, of which I own several. Normally I don’t read one straight through but dip in and out.
  • Letters – These would be real-life letters, which I love to read. I may combine this category with the next one and read the last book of Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s letters that I’ve owned for several years but not yet read.
  • A book from my To-Be-Read stack – Lots to choose from here!
  • Old Books – My cut off is anything pre-1950
  • A Shakespeare play – I’ve read about three fourths of his plays and plan to read one new to me.
  • A book that requires jumping a hurdle. Either because it’s difficult to read or long or I’m avoiding it for some reason.
  • A book I started but never finished – There are several possibilities for this category.
  • Something Russian – Perhaps I should combine the previous category with this one and finally finish Anna Karenina!
  • Biography and Memoir – This is one of my favorite categories so I’ll have fun choosing a book for this one.
  • Something Local – I can read a book set in my area or by a local author. Since I work with the local authors at my library, I have many possibilities.
  • Reading Outside My Comfort Zone – This is a work category and part of the challenge.
  • Travel Books – I have a couple on my shelves that I’ve been meaning to read.
  • A Re-Read – I re-read regularly so this will be easy.
  • A Favorite Topic – I could choose several areas here–writing, genealogy, cooking, needlework, English history, or theology.
  • Focusing on an author – The idea is to read three or more books by the same author. I hope to choose a non-mystery author to stretch me.
  • Multicultural/#OwnVoices novel or memoir – This is for work and part of the challenge – I completed this one by reading The Beauty in Breaking by Michele Harper.
  • Theology and Christian Living – At least two of each this year.
  • A Winter Reading Challenge badge – Our library has a winter reading challenge each year, and you can earn badges by reading books in different categories. I earned the Surviving Winter Challenge by reading Snow by John Banville, A Cold Day for Murder by Dana Stabenow, and Crossed Skis by Carol Carnac.

My January reading was very satisfying in comfort although not so much in the challenge. I read three nonfiction, one of which was poetry, fifteen fiction books, and one children’s book. Of the fiction, only three weren’t mysteries. As much as I love mysteries, I need to be more adventurous in my reading.

I re-read several Hercule Poirot novels, which could count in the rereading category as well as the focus on a single author category, but they aren’t really stretching my reading life so I won’t count them toward the challenge.
Waiting on the Word was poetry and devotional, but since I started it in December, I don’t plan to count it on this list. Also, I finally finished Union with Christ, which I started last year, too, so I’m not counting it either.
Business as Usual by Jane Oliver was a delightful novel in letters. It doesn’t count for the challenge since that’s supposed to be real life letters, but it was so wonderful that I don’t care. I loved every second of it and will most likely read it again in the near future.

February is off to a better start as I intentionally chose books to read and am setting aside time daily to make progress in them—theology, nonfiction, and a book on literature. I’d like to add a book on writing and some poetry. I’ve almost decided which poetry anthology to read. In the meantime, I’m listening to a podcast on poetry and one on writing.

Do you plan to read intentionally in 2021? What’s the best book you read in January?