by Nora Vasconcelos
As soon as this year started, I saw many posts on social media asking people “How many books are you going to read this year?“, I also saw some other posts inviting readers to join reading challenges to be fulfilled by the end of 2023, so they would finish certain amount of books through the year.
Many people responded with enthusism, and I think it’s good, anything that invites people to read is great, but then I also remembered how much I enjoyed the books I read last year, and how much books helped me get through to the longest and worst part of the pandemic lockdowns.
In both cases, books took my mind away all problems and worries, they helped me travel when traveling was out of the questionsm and they also took away the real life, when that was needed.
So I wonder how good it is to fall into this constant pressure of how many and how fast you’re going to read this year, why not just asking “How many books are you going to enjoy?” with an answer as simple as “as many I feel like“.
I know metrics are part of this world, but we frequently forget that enjoying the things we do is also important.
Regarding this, I think we could add the idea of “Slow reading” to our often always-in-a-hurry-lives.
Espressions such as Slow travel and Slow food have become common in recent years, the same as mindfulness, all of them inviting people to slow down, be really present in the moment, and enjoy the things we do.
Recently, the New York Times published the following article:
It’s time to slow down!The article talks about the book “Slow Birding: The Art and Science of Enjoying the Birds in your Own Backyard“, by Joan E. Strassmann, where she reflects on how we can gain a better insight “into our inner circle of everyday birds“.
This brings me back to my idea of “Slow Reading“, a movement of which Wikipedia has a brief but very interesting article, for those how want to learn more about this topic.
In the end, it’s up to everyone to decide what makes us feel happy, and if reading many books in a year is that, that is also fantastic!
But if somehow some readers feel the pressure to complete a list of books by the end of the year (just because the idea appears so often everywhere), insted of taking their time to enjoy every single book they hold in their hand, then let’s just do that!
Happy readings, my friends! 🙂
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