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I am grateful for books and reading.

I am an avid reader and reading is a big part of my life. Second only to my journaling and pen habit (see previous post), books make up a significant portion of my possessions. I love to read. Books make me happy. The written word makes me happy. Fiction stories make me happy. Non-fiction makes me happy. I love a good memoir. I love an exploration into a topic I might not consider looking into save for it being an awesome book.

I stopped reading for a few years, between 2015 and 2017. Well what I really mean is, I didn’t finish many books during that period, not that I didn’t read at all. This time triggered my research into using my phone more consciously, but more on that another time.

Once I had a better handle and more boundaries around my phone use, I started reading more often again. I have read some incredible books over the last five years that have without a doubt changed my life (some of which you can find HERE), and I am so grateful for that. In 2021, I read over 200 books, which is something I could have never imagined doing in my wildest dreams. My evenings are spent with books and I’m not afraid to say it (have I mentioned I’m an introvert). I am so grateful for them; the physical ones, the ones I rent in the library app through my local libraries, and the ones I will write.

Awareness Practice: Have you ever tried not to read for a whole day? In the Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, this is one of the exercises, but if I remember correctly, it’s longer than a day. In the age of texts and emails, this is an incredibly hard practice (or at least it is for me). It is also the practice that evolved into the “input break or fast,” that I do when I feel like I have been taking in too much external information. Try this on for yourself, how often do you read something in your day?