12 frogs

My book review blog, reading notes, turned five last month. Since I’ve reviewed just about every book I’ve read since I started it, I know I’ve read two hundred and thirty four books in the last five years. (That includes the last three Harry Potters — and yes, the series ended well.)

Now, 234 sounded like pretty good number to me. Well, it did until I realized that my overall average (~47 books a year) is what it is because I read like a fiend in the first few years and not so much so in the last two. That wouldn’t be so bad, except I don’t think my book buying speed has changed much (and I know my book storage space is a most finite resource) and I don’t love reading books any less now than I did five years ago.

So why am I spending less time reading?

I could blame the internet, I suppose. I do spend even more time online than I used to. It is true I am just a wee bit flickr obsessed, and projects like 365 days are a serious time commitment. Then again, I could blame my job, as I do work more hours now than in the job I had when I started reading notes, or for the job I had right before this one. (It’s true: I’ve been blogging longer than I’ve held any one job.)

I don’t think there is a right number of books I should be reading, and this isn’t about zipping through the things in my unread stack (okay, fine, my unread shelf) — it’s about taking the time to think through what really matters to me, and seeing if what I say is important to me lives up to the scrutiny of my calendar. If it really is important, I’ll spend the time. All the bullshit stuff that creeps into my day, all the stuff I get so busy with — well, maybe I shouldn’t be so busy. Even better, I should rethink what I’m busy with.

So that is what I’m doing. I’m majorly revamping my feed reading habits (another post and link to an updated OPML file is coming soon). I’m thinking more critically about the projects I engage in “for me” and “for work” — and how my goal is for that gap to be fruitful, challenging, and dynamic instead of stress-inducing, tiring, and frustrating.

I’m going to spend more time reading. There could be a book that would stay with me the way The Truth About Stories has collecting dust in my living room right now, waiting for me to discover it.