My year of reading started out strong in the beginning of January, but fell off around the middle.
I had set out to read 20 pages per day and joined the StoryGraph goal of reading/updating my reading journal every day, and both of those things went well until about the 16th of January. My general goal for myself this year is to simply make reading a habit again, and while I have read a little bit here and there since the 16th of last month, I am already failing.
The stress brought on by current events has definitely put me in a certain state of freeze when I look to my hobbies (reading or otherwise). “I could be doing something” or better informing myself on something I could be doing in my community instead of a personal endeavor. This is not necessarily a new feeling, but it has been exacerbated over the past few months (years).
Nonetheless, I did, as I mentioned above, have a good start to the month. I finished rereading A Discovery of Witches and started rereading The Fifth Season—which I plan to continue in February. While I felt more deeply that the timeline of ADOW is way too quick, I still really enjoyed the story and magic. And during the start of my reread of TFS I found myself reading and retaining the story a little faster than I did previously. I believe my exploration into more of N.K. Jemisin’s series helped with this; the more of her books I read the better I am at reading, I think.
I’ll leave this Wrap-Up at that—if you’re on StoryGraph I’d love to connect, and check out my Reading Journal blog posts from January if you’re interested in some weekly thoughts on what I read.
What did you read (or not read) in January? Any recommendations, or blog posts you’ve loved (of yours or others’)? Let’s chat in the comments.