3 weeks, 2 books

Reading is something I really enjoy. Most of my recent reading has been in the form of blogs. I used to read books a lot. Apparently, I read blogs of Readers. Oh, how I long to be a Reader. I am not sure how many books I read last year. I know it was less than ten. I'm only counting books I read for me. I read countless new and old books to Tot because I want him to enjoy reading too.

The reasons for reading less in recent years are varied. A great reason is Tot. I choose to actively spend time with him in the evenings. Another awesome reason is MH, in the evenings after Tot goes to bed, we spend our time together. We visit or catch up on our favorite shows. Noble reason three: sleep is valuable to me. I could stay up later to read, but that would just stockpile for bad down the line. I need adequate sleep more than I need to read.

An awful reason for my lack of book reading is my stinking smartphone. I rarely get on the computer for anything other than blogging and banking. But the phone brings apps and disctractions to my fingertips. "Hello giant, white f. I see you've been beckoning me. I haven't touched you in at least three minutes. Allow me to see what people are up to." My self-righteous "spending time with Tot" in the evenings often involved several or more minutes with the f. My precious sleep was pushed later to check those last late-night status updates.

A long while ago, I culled my "friends" to family and only friends that I interacted with on FB. But the thing is, a lot of those friends and I have not once, in YEARS had contact outside of a random comment or "like". I was wasting time I could have spent doing so many other things. A bit before Christmas, without warning, I removed the FB app from my phone and also disabled installing apps so that I couldn't SO easily go back to my old browsing habits. I get emails when I am tagged or receive a FB message, but otherwise, FB no longer beckons me. I haven't really missed it.

Another improvement I made was reorganizing the bookmarked blogs on my phone so that they are in a more browsable order. I deleted rarely updated ones from my phone listing (though not from Google Reader). I also said goodbye to some that I no longer love, but also picked up a couple new ones that are pretty great. Since I streamlined my phone's contents, I don't waste so much time waiting for things to load and looking for that specific new blog that was in the middle of the not-so-often list.

While I have a general goal to read more books this year, I also have a more specific goal to read at least 4 of the books on Shalini's classics for 2013 list. When I told her my (lowly) goal, she suggested I stick to the always underrated children's books. I can do that. Now, it wasn't a classic, but I am happy to report that as of last night, a mere three weeks into 2013, I have finished my second book of the year: Catching Fire. I read The Hunger Games on my trip to Belgium. In May. Isn't that pathetic? Not that one could tell from my timely reading of the trilogy, but there is just something about that series that enthralls me. How does Ms. Collins think of such fantastical things? Anyway, I cannot wait to get my hands and eyes on Mockingjay. Can I possibly complete three books in a month?