How I Read

The majority of my reading is done on a Kindle Paperwhite. (Fellow bibliophiles, suppress your gasps – I have good reason!) I’ve been nomadic for the past year, so I travel too frequently (and too lightly) to lug real books around. Several years ago, I embraced minimalism and donated all of the hard-copy books I had accumulated – no small number at that point. It was surprisingly non-traumatic (liberating even!), and I haven’t looked back since. Plus, now it feels like an extra special treat to hold a real book, and I appreciate the sensory experience of it in a way I never did before.

Every Monday when I do my weekly planning routine, I update my reading spreadsheet. If I’ve finished a book in the prior week, I log the date, grade it, and double check the formulas to be sure my tallies update correctly. (What would a spreadsheet be without formulas?)

Then comes the fun part: deciding what to read next. I keep an On Deck tab in the spreadsheet where I frequently add titles as I come across recommendations and “best of” lists. I reference that and do one of the following:

• Select my next book from the list.
• Read something I’ve already downloaded on a recent book-finding spree.
• Do some new research on a topic that has piqued my interest lately and find a book centered on that – Stoicism being a recent example. (This is my favorite book-choosing option, but I try not to let reading about reading get in the way of actually reading, if you know what I mean.)

I usually keep three books in rotation at the same time: one fiction, one non-fiction, and something on spirituality. Previously, I had rules about which books to read at which times. (Have I mentioned I love rules?) Eventually I realized it was turning my book consumption into a should-do instead of a can’t-wait-to-do activity, so now I read what I want when I want. I’m a real rebel, if you can’t tell.

Speaking of literary rebellion, a new rule this year – and one I’m still struggling with – is that I now allow myself to quit a book if it’s not sticking. I still debate about whether this is the right thing to do because there is the odd book that takes a significant upswing in the final chapters. But in the end, we only have this one little lifetime and so many delicious books to fill it with – quite a beautiful conundrum.