Yes, it’s been a hot minute since I last posted. We’re going to proceed with today’s post as if this isn’t true, and maybe or maybe not address it in this week’s Four for Friday.
Instead, today I’d love to fill you in on my current reading status.
Remember my 2020 goal to read more? And then my 2021 obiettivo to continue academic development, including reading 50 books?
Well, I’ve been excelling insanely at this. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that I am in a master’s program focused on creative writing & literature, and therefore this is pushing me to read more, but, as of right now, I am half way through my goal* and it is only June 2nd.
*25 books read!
I have read so many books. Some not so incredibly written and others not exactly what I usually read, and I’m thankful to have read them all. I think each book read makes us a little more aware of the world we live in, a little more empathetic to the differences of others, and a little more educated in things we might never have formally chose to be educated in.
Last night, Hubby and I watched The Professor and the Madman a movie my brother, Justin, recommended to me over a year ago.
Somehow, this was the moment in time meant for me to watch it because it hit me with such emotion and understanding that it was all I could do to keep from letting the floodgates run open during the final half hour of the movie. It is a movie about mental illness and forgiveness and words—and their significance in our world.
In one scene, our madman realizes a woman he has been meeting with cannot read. He offers to teach her and she initially refuses until he says this:
“It’s freedom, Mrs. Merrett. I can fly out of this place on the backs of books. I’ve gone to the end of the world on the wings of words. When I read, no one is after me. When I read, I am the one who is chasing, chasing after God. Please, I beg you, join the chase.”
We cannot allow leisure reading to become a thing of the past. Studies show leisure reading in the US is at an all-time low. That in 2019, 27% of Americans hadn’t read a book in the past year. I fear what those statistics might be in ten years and what they might mean for the publishing industry.
I began my quest to begin reading more in 2019 when I started a journal to write down each book I read that year. When I found myself in conversation more frequently saying things like, “I learned this” or “I read this” it made me realize what an impact the books were having on me.
We save the art of reading for pleasure by joining the chase. For me, it began by choosing a month, mine was February 2019, and instead of watching an hour of TV at night, I read for an hour.
It starts with just one book.
Please. I beg you. Join the chase.
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