Reading

All my life I have been a voracious reader.  I love series and can binge read them with the best.  When I found out I was pregnant at 40, I was elated.  I threw up every day the whole pregnancy (but it was so worth it) so when I struggled reading, I thought it was just from feeling sick.  After my son was born, I was all about him, feeding him, feeding myself, and sleeping. Maybe showering.  So I still didn’t notice anything.

When I went back to work, in a job that required reading, it was a struggle.  I told myself I was just tired.  Three years in, though I started to worry.  I got a job where I was commuting three hours a day, and turned to audible.com and books as the best carpool buddies ever.  After six months of that commute, however, I moved five minutes from work and my reading sharply declined over the next year.

So in 2016 I made a New Year’s Resolution to read more.  I found a reading challenge to help me search for books and partnered with other reader friends. I read 54 books that year and was so excited.  By October I was binge reading series just like the good old days.  I read 70 in 2017 and 122 in 2018.  I set my 2019 goal at 85.  Partly because both my son and father were hospitalized in 2018 and I spent a lot of time bedside and helping them both.  Reading was my comfort during both times.  It was my hiding spot after my dad died.  And that is okay, because that is what a true friend does for you.  But looking at 2019, I knew I wanted to get out and do things, too.  So I set my goal at 85 to maintain a challenge but leave room to explore.

Mother Nature must have thought that I needed more books though.  The first three months of 2019 left us inside many weekends.  And my 2019 Read list reflected it.  Today, July 3, I finished my 80th book for the year.  My yearly goal is a joke now. The past week alone, I have stayed up till midnight every night reading.  I am 48 years old and going to work tired because I stayed up late reading. The thirteen year old me says “being an adult is so cool.”  The mom in me believes I deserve every yawn I take.

Do you go through ups and downs with your reading?  When and where are your reading times and places?  Why do you read?  I read at the pool, in the evening, at lunch, and after my son has gone to bed.  I read to learn, escape, dream, and explore things I can’t explore given my current responsibilities.