bookworm

{found via pinterest from imgfave}

i have a goal for this year which really sort of started at thanksgiving. right before thanksgiving peter and i randomly ended up in a conversation with someone at an event. and he said his goal is to read a book a week. one book every week. it wasn't a new goal. he had been doing it for years. 

as much as i love reading, a book a week just seems a bit ambitious for me. i do want to read more though; so i decided that my goal would be two books a month, or one about every two weeks. thanks to our trip i'm already ahead of schedule for january, but continuing the trend is going to be pretty tough.

i just realized that the more i read the easier it is to write. the more i read the more i learn; the more i think about bigger things than just what's in front of my face in any given moment. the more i read the more i'm challenged to live my life differently.

this isn't to say i don't enjoy other types of media. typically i don't watch a lot of tv, but yesterday i remembered that the sixth and final season of parenthood got added to netflix when we were gone on our trip. and there went the afternoon.

sure, i try to make myself feel better by saying that i did other things while i watched. i did. but i also pretty much got lost in braverman world until keane woke up from his nap.

{sidenote: this is one of my vices. i often think that if there's something that doesn't really fit in with one of my goals then i should do it as quickly as possible so it doesn't drag out - so i won't get used to it. it's why i watched as many episodes of parenthood as i could yesterday. it's also why i allow myself to eat a lot of sweets on some days. that way they are no longer in my house tempting me. i know, i know, my logical is undeniable!}

i can let this happen with books too. it often happens with books, but generally i'm losing sleep with books instead of losing my time to clean the bathroom in the afternoon {which may explain why i often let myself get pulled into something i have to do right now when it's time to clean the bathroom in the afternoon...}.

anyway, this is one of those things that i'm trying to balance amidst my other priorities and responsibilities. i'm also trying to read an array of books on an array of subjects because despite our culture becoming more and more about expertise, most disciplines are connected somehow. many different areas tie together, and so i'm going to look at many different areas. here's my list of books since thanksgiving:

{found via pinterest from brit+co}

{found via pinterest from refinery29}

{found via pinterest from fit pregnancy}

{found via pinterest from amazon}

{found via pinterest from makoto fujimaura}

i'm in the middle of culture care right now, and it is challenging and encouraging all at once. it's kind of funny how all over the place this list is, but it also points to different sides of me. it points to different areas i want to know more about. the crazy thing is it doesn't even include any classic literature which is one of my favorite genres to read.

i digress.

the point is that i want to learn. books can be an escape from life, but they can also show us new areas and help us to see things we wouldn't see otherwise. i hate how disconnected and truncated life has become. but part of that truncation includes things that i appreciate. i both hate and appreciate that i can learn about what's going on in people's lives from facebook. i hate that i don't have to have a real conversation with them to catch up, but i like that i can feel like i'm still somewhat connected to people even when they live in a different part of the country {or city for that matter}. 

i hate how isolating it can be to sit there and watch others' lives scrolling by, but i like being able to connect to someone with a few keystrokes. the challenge is to use it for the benefits, but not get lost trying to live inside of something else.

the point of these things - or what should be the point - is to enhance our lives, not to take over our lives. i want to make decisions and use my time in beneficial ways that keep my priorities in perspective. that doesn't always happen {ahem...see my notes above about parenthood yesterday}, but that's the goal.

there are plenty of times when i question my goals because there are so many different things i want to do. i have goals for all different facets of my life, and sometimes i wonder if i chose the right one to do right now. but when i do that i get lost inside of a world of questions, and i don't move ahead on anything. i need to take time to reflect without getting lost in what i should have done better. learn from it, yes. get lost in it, no. i'm learning that there's a big difference between these two things, but i should probably try to read a book on the subject. {*wink*}

any suggestions of books i just have to read?

xo