Exactly a year ago today I posted this to my FaceBook timeline:
Shortly afterwards a FaceBook friend posted this:
I have no idea if this post was a reaction to my post or not, but I took it that way.
Being the sensitive soul that I am, I felt a little snubbed by this reaction.
When I read the comments to the FaceBook friend's post I felt even worse.
Someone responded:
Someone else responded:
And someone responded to that response with:
Now, in all fairness to the commenters, none of these remarks were directed at me, but they stirred up a fire in me. It's amazing how off-handed remarks can do that.
I was tempted to respond, but I restrained myself. The funny thing is that I really think that that whole thing helped me to have one of the best years every in regard to number of books read.
There were other factors that led to my great year of reading, and I'll share more about them in other posts, but for now, I just needed to get this off my chest.
I know that there are people that read a lot more than me, and there are people that read a lot less than me. It doesn't bother me one way or the other. I would never belittle someone for their reading goals. I think it is important to encourage everyone to simply read. It doesn't matter what you read or how much you read. Just read.
I looked on the challenge I posted not so much as a challenge to read 12 books but as a challenge to read a variety of books.
I have always loved to read. I have seldom set reading goals, last year, however, I decided to set a goal. I reactivated my GoodReads account and set a goal for the 2016 Reading Challenge. I think I did originally set my goal at 12 books, but I kept changing the goal as I surpassed it, until I finally decided I didn't care about the goal, I just wanted to read, so I stopped changing my goal and just read. In the end I ended up reading 104 books! And I read a wide variety of books.
So, having such a great year of reading is great, but here's the important lesson in all of this - If you are riled up about something, put the energy into accomplishing something rather than responding in a negative way. You'll be so much better off for it.
And another thing, why not consider setting a reading goal this year, even if it's just to finish one book this year, or one book a month, or whatever will get you reading. That's the important thing. Not how many books you read, but just that you read.
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