.....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?
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?
ReplyDeleteIn 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.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sandy and Melanie,
ReplyDeleteI 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!
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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