i'm entering this year feeling so similarly and with the same mentality as i set my reading goals. i'm embracing annotation, looking things up, and am starting a physical reading journal to track my notes while reading and then actually writing out a review in a space that isn't influenced by all the pre-existing thoughts floating around on the internet. love this and also looking forward to learning how to read again!
Love the idea of a physical reading journal. I’m bad about remembering to keep up with one, but I love that it forces you to be intentional and separates you from a screen that is so connected to all of this. Here’s to reading better for us this year!!
I want to share a million quotes from this because there is not one thing I disagree with. Been having conversations about this so much lately! And with you! Just expressed in words perfectly here 😤
Reading fewer books is also one of my efforts this year! Counterintuitive but needed. Also I loooooooved Matrix, always happy to see it get a shoutout bc I can’t convince anyone I know irl to pick it up!!
Love this article and am feeling so much like you. So I am determined to pull back from most online book influence, as fun as that engagement can be sometimes. I hope reading more stacks such as yours will make for a more fulfilling reading year. Thanks!
i spent the last year exclusively borrowing books from the library and realized i don't miss buying books. i also mercilessly culled my collection, because i realized i was holding onto so many books that i was never going to read again--or read in the first place.
i've had to overcome my need to finish every book i start. i wasted so much time trudging through books i wasn't enjoying because i felt i had to. and to think how much of that energy could have gone towards something i'd actually like!
Thank you! Love that you went full library, and also so interesting to me that it made you miss buying books!! Sometimes using the library has the opposite effect on me so I prob need to examine that and shift my mindset more toward yours hahah
also yes to not finishing books! Sometimes it’s nothing against the book, just not the right time/place, and there are too many damn books to read otherwise
I love that part around learning how to talk about books. I sometimes think that a lot of people are spending too much time talking negatively about books or nitpicking them just for clout/hot-takes that it takes away from the experience, when they can spend that energy talking about the things they love instead. Lovely post and I’m a new subscriber. ☺️
So good, Steph! I was nodding along with every point. What you said: "I am concerned by the rise of anti-intellectualism, with aesthetics overshadowing substance, and I worry that social media is flattening us all into our identity markers and rendering us incapable of nuance or multitudes." is something I've been thinking and talking about lately and it only reinforced my desire to look inward at my book tastes this year instead of outwards all the time.
I loved this so much. I’ve been feeling guilty about not reading quickly enough this year and opting for audiobooks over written books so I don’t fall behind on my reading goal. This article has literally just shone a light in my face about how fuckin dumb that is. I have been a slave to Goodreads and StoryGraph for too long. I really loved your suggestions of changing your reading goals to be more about the content than the quantity! Too good.
“No but I can picture the cover” haunts me
I knew everyone would feel that one 😭
i'm entering this year feeling so similarly and with the same mentality as i set my reading goals. i'm embracing annotation, looking things up, and am starting a physical reading journal to track my notes while reading and then actually writing out a review in a space that isn't influenced by all the pre-existing thoughts floating around on the internet. love this and also looking forward to learning how to read again!
Love the idea of a physical reading journal. I’m bad about remembering to keep up with one, but I love that it forces you to be intentional and separates you from a screen that is so connected to all of this. Here’s to reading better for us this year!!
I want to share a million quotes from this because there is not one thing I disagree with. Been having conversations about this so much lately! And with you! Just expressed in words perfectly here 😤
ily and I cannot wait to have more conversations WITH YOUR SUBSTACK
This!!!
Reading fewer books is also one of my efforts this year! Counterintuitive but needed. Also I loooooooved Matrix, always happy to see it get a shoutout bc I can’t convince anyone I know irl to pick it up!!
Ahhh YES same, I know “12th century nuns” doesn’t sound all that enticing but still, hard to convince people it is so worth it!!!
Love this article and am feeling so much like you. So I am determined to pull back from most online book influence, as fun as that engagement can be sometimes. I hope reading more stacks such as yours will make for a more fulfilling reading year. Thanks!
I’d love to pull back more as well, but I’m always torn! Hope this is a great reading year for you 🥰
I love absolutely everything about this; no notes.
Thank you for reading❣️
love this! thanks for sharing <3
i spent the last year exclusively borrowing books from the library and realized i don't miss buying books. i also mercilessly culled my collection, because i realized i was holding onto so many books that i was never going to read again--or read in the first place.
i've had to overcome my need to finish every book i start. i wasted so much time trudging through books i wasn't enjoying because i felt i had to. and to think how much of that energy could have gone towards something i'd actually like!
Thank you! Love that you went full library, and also so interesting to me that it made you miss buying books!! Sometimes using the library has the opposite effect on me so I prob need to examine that and shift my mindset more toward yours hahah
also yes to not finishing books! Sometimes it’s nothing against the book, just not the right time/place, and there are too many damn books to read otherwise
“but we make time for what we want. Is lining the pockets of tech billionaires all we‘re capable of wanting?” Oof, this was good
something I am thinking about a LOT as I come to terms with my own complicity and try 2 change 🥲 thank u!
this this this this
I love that part around learning how to talk about books. I sometimes think that a lot of people are spending too much time talking negatively about books or nitpicking them just for clout/hot-takes that it takes away from the experience, when they can spend that energy talking about the things they love instead. Lovely post and I’m a new subscriber. ☺️
So good, Steph! I was nodding along with every point. What you said: "I am concerned by the rise of anti-intellectualism, with aesthetics overshadowing substance, and I worry that social media is flattening us all into our identity markers and rendering us incapable of nuance or multitudes." is something I've been thinking and talking about lately and it only reinforced my desire to look inward at my book tastes this year instead of outwards all the time.
I loved this so much. I’ve been feeling guilty about not reading quickly enough this year and opting for audiobooks over written books so I don’t fall behind on my reading goal. This article has literally just shone a light in my face about how fuckin dumb that is. I have been a slave to Goodreads and StoryGraph for too long. I really loved your suggestions of changing your reading goals to be more about the content than the quantity! Too good.