Came across a Huffington Post article this past week on “How to Read a Book a Week“. Its all about reading goals and the incentive they offer to better reading. And I get that. My own reading goal for the year is 100 books (on Goodreads). So far, I’ve read 24 and will probably make it, which is my own tip for reading goals–set them, but probably lower than what you will actually read. I think reading goals should be fun–maybe a slight stretch but doable.
So, there were some things I liked that the writer of this article mentioned:
- One day at a time: he suggests figuring out how many pages the average book one reads and setting a daily goal (say 30 to 40 pages) and try to set aside time early to read. I do have a daily goal in mind and I do read early, before life ramps up and I get into my day.
- Make it a routine: I try to read first thing each day (which the author does). Don’t always get to do this because of early morning meetings, but this helps.
- Use every moment: I will often do this if I have enough time to focus on what I’m reading. Otherwise, I often carry a periodical in my bag or on my Kindle that I can read in a few minutes.
- It’s OK to give up: Some books just don’t turn out to be what we think, or we are not in the place to read them. No use being miserable just to reach some goal.
I had a problem with some of this article because it just seemed pretty OCD–and some of us bibliophiles don’t need any encouragement in that regard!
- It’s OK to cheat: Sure, there are good short books we can read to reach our goals. But reading short books just to catch up if I’m behind on a reading goal seems to make the goal more important than reading good books–long or short. While I also agree that there is no inherent virtue in long books, I would say that the best thing is to read the book that captures your interest, that enriches your life, that is right for you at the time.
- Never fall behind: This seems the most OCD to me. Sometimes life happens and there are things more important than reading. Sometimes we are just reading books that take longer than a week.
I agree with the writer’s conclusion that reading can enrich our lives. If a goal, whether reading one book a year, a month, a week, or even a day (as I understand was Teddy Roosevelt’s practice) serves as an on ramp to those riches, great. But let’s keep it rich, not a misery. Sometimes a challenging book takes mental effort to read and is worth it. But making oneself miserable (or just very task-oriented) just to add a book to meet our reading goals seems to defeat the purpose. My two cents, anyway!
While not about your post, I had to share some book issues with someone. Will you listen? haha. I started helping in my church library this year. (We are new, having attended this church a little over a year.) Anyways, the library needs an overhaul. I’m just an assistant and new, so I feel I can’t say or do too much at present. (Next year I may be the librarian, which would give me freedom to do an overhaul.) It seems previous people who helped in library had little knowledge of books and just mechanically accepted and shelved books. There are some odd secular books that just don’t belong in a church library. There are moldy books donated when someone old died at the church. (Apparently little discernment about accepting books.) Also some really wacky categorizing of books. For example, The Great Divorce by CS Lewis was put in the Marriage and Relationships section! You get the idea…
But I’m thankful that there is a church library, as they seem to be becoming a thing of the past. And despite the mess, there are some great titles.
I’ve read 12 books this year, and thought that was pretty good! Yeah, the OCD stuff takes the joy out of it for me.
Sounds familiar. My wife served as our church librarian for a number of years. Mostly, the library was a dumping ground for books people were purging (and whatever we donated). We purged a good deal of material over the years (much of the sort you described) but the most disconcerting thing was that only about two people in the church used the library (and one never returned the books withdrawn). So we re-purposed the space this past year to a sitting area with two shelves of books, an art space and music storage for the choral group who rehearses at our church.
It seems the real challenge is getting people to actually use church libraries as well as developing a policy for donations and a budget for acquisitions. We didn’t accomplish that–hope you are able!
So the church library as “dumping ground” seems to be typical. I don’t get it. Why would people even donate certain things?
Our church library is actually used quite a bit, but only one section of it. There is a large section of books and DVD’s for leading group Bible studies and adult Sunday school. The selection is quite good, and leaders come in to peruse it. However, the rest of the library is ignored – partly (or primarily) because it is in a poor state of organization with books needing to be purged, etc.