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| messy and slow mornings |
This time of year pulls at the heart to slow down, and pulls at me to re-read my favorites. I've been finding myself rewatching my favorite book/movie adaptations and drinking extra hot beverages although the temp is regularly 88+.
Sacrilegious temperatures aside, I've noted a trend happening online. So many judgmental videos being made about what/how other people read. I guess it's a product of what I call our "comparison culture", but it's gross all the same.
It should be perfectly okay whether someone binges audiobooks at 10x speed, or reads ONE Dostoevsky novel per season. This "right/wrong" dichotomy in the reading community is just gross.
Treating reading an exercise in superiority is truly wild. We are all on ONE team. Team Read More Books and keep libraries alive.
It shouldn't matter what you read nor how often.
It shouldn't matter if you vlog, blog, photograph it or not.
It doesn't matter if you track it online or in a physical notebook like I do.
There's truly enough division in the world without adding the division in the bookish community to that list.
Although I'm writing about it here, I stay far far far away from debates on line with strangers. It's futile, useless, and not good a job way to spend my energy or time. But, I wanted to use my small, quiet space to remind anyone (if you even need reminding) that you're doing fine in your reading life.
Living great books is far better than bragging about them or using what you've read to compare to other people.
I live myself between the chapters of great and moving novels. I literally can remember what was going on in my life based off of what I was reading during certain periods. This means that I don't have time to worry about what others think of how or why I read.
There are periods when I downloaded 4 cozy mystery audiobooks from the library to get through a weekend of intense. These books "kept me company" so to speak and I regret nothing! Sure, I can't remember all the characters or the real point, but who cares? I was entertained and accompanied for long hours in my storage unit reorganizing holiday decor.
Other times, I am hunkered down on my couch (customary) with a necklight (always ) while reading and re-reading passages from Brookner novels. Or more likely, I have a stack of 10-12 books at my bedside and I read a few pages from each. Who is going to tell me I'm wrong to read this way? And even if I did, I'll ignore them and my advice is that you ignore them too.
Consuming so much content about what others think, and how others do things, has gone way too far. It embeds tiny little fragments of how things are supposed to be done inside of our heads and before long we are defending things that don't need to be defended, or participating in discussions about how others are doing things "incorrectly"
All of this to say, let your reading be a free liminal space.
Allow your reading life to be dictated by your current circumstances and to whatever is actually calling to you during this phase of your life.
The only thing that matters is that you feel called back to the page.
I'm rooting for you that your reading life will be what shapes your heart and calls to your soul.
I know mine is.
Happy reading ☕️
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