I’ve been thinking about reading recently, as I haven’t been doing a lot of it the past few weeks, and Goodreads always sets a challenge for books to read at the start of the year. What I’ve been pondering is, should I read less? To someone who reads a lot, and who thinks that reading is crucial to writing, this is a bit of a sacrilege.
Last year, I set my Goodreads challenge to 50 for the year, then upped it to 60. Ultimately I read 72 (and by read, I mean “listened to,” either audio books, or ebooks that Siri read to me). You should be able to see the list here (you probably need a Goodreads login).
But this year, I want to write more words for you, and as I wrote in The Glory of a Media Fast, I tend to write more and faster if I don’t have other things cluttering my brain. The more I let myself mull the story and don’t fill it my skull with yammering, whether that’s podcasts or audio books or whatever, the more story gets created.
So it makes me think that maybe, I should be reading less.
For now, I’ve set my 2019 reading challenge to just 24 books, a pretty paltry number for me. I may up it later, but for now, I’m lowballing it and hoping to write more.
How about you? How many books did you read last year? What was your favourite? And how many are you hoping to read this year? Hit reply and let me know.