Friday, December 23, 2011

Speaking of Reading Books

.....and about thoughts on 2011 and plans for 2012,  I thought of another couple of things I wanted to change this year. 

One was that I didn't really read very many devotional books when I look back on last year.  I read lots of books with a Christian perspective, and particularly I am glad I read so many Christian novels, but I didn't finish many classic books on Christian living.    Next year I'd like to read more of these, particularly rereads.

Another related thing -- I had no way to record reading that wasn't book or was only excerpted from books.   So when I, say, browsed through a book on my shelves and read for about an hour, but didn't read from cover to cover, I just didn't write it down, even if it was good quality reading.  

I stayed away from some reading I would have liked to do because I wasn't sure if I could commit to reading the whole thing cover to cover.   This sort of ties in with the lack of religious books recorded because sometimes I did start reading an excellent religious book -- I started reading CS Lewis's Christian Reflections, I reread some of ST Francis de Sales' God's Will For You, I read quite a lot of a biography on St Francis de Sales, I reread a good bit of Imitation of Christ, and I read parts of a compilation of St Thomas Aquinas.   But I didn't really know how to count this.  Should I count pages next year?   That sounds too difficult and quantity-oriented for something like reading.  What about when I read an article online?   Do any of you keep track of this kind of reading and if so, how? 


4 comments:

  1. I'd like to read answers to that question too. It creates a bit of reading freedom if we don't feel like we have to read cover-to-cover since not every book will interest us that much. Perhaps keeping track of that on paper or a simple document on your computer instead of GoodReads?

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  2. In my (attempted but not always completed) monthly reading roundup blog posts I did try to note books that I read some of but didn't finish. In places I noted why I thought I wasn't finishing. I tried to note both what I liked about them and what I didn't. As I said, I wasn't as consistent as I'd have liked-- and I didn't read near as many books as I'd have liked. But the general approach of looking back at my reading month by month was helpful.

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  3. Thanks Sandy and Melanie,

    I have started a private blog where I am trying to list everything I read (besides blogs). I am hoping that will not be too complicated and will let me keep better track. Then maybe I will do some sort of monthly roundup like you did, Melanie. I don't think there's any way I could remember what I read for a whole month unless I kept notes along the way! I can't even remember what I did in a day at the end of it!

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  4. Oh yes. I forgot to mention that I kept a running list of every book I started in the Notes app on my iPhone. Also, I'm reading a pathetic number of books a month these days. I used to read as much as you do but these days my reading time has been seriously limited.

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I would love to hear your thoughts on this!