Life of Lydia

Dear readers, many of you may have read my mothers recent blog post about her 5×5 reading challenge. You may be wondering, “Does Lydia do any kind of reading challenge?” The answer? No.

Reading challenges are in essence, rules that a person creates for themselves about what they can read, how much they have to read etc. I often create rules for myself by accident, and that never ends well. I see no reason to create them on purpose. Also, if I were to not finish a challenge, I would flip out and never forgive myself for as long as I live.

My mother says that her reading challenge helps her stay motivated. I feel like I’m naturally motivated to read, without the aid of a challenge.

I don’t want to set a prescribed number of books that I must read in a year. This would make me feel rushed. I would be so nervous about not reading all of the books that I was supposed to, that I would hurry through my reading and not stop and truly enjoy it. I prefer to take my time and not rush through books.

Example: I have been reading Emma by Jane Austen for the past three weeks and am only halfway done with it. I am reading it at such a slow pace because, I frequently stop to reread a passage, look up a word, or read notes from my annotated copy. I don’t have to worry that I’m not reading it fast enough, because there is no deadline for when I need to have it done. Because of this, I am having a great deal of fun reading Emma.

The point of reading is not to get books done, but to appreciate and understand what they contain. I feel that a reading challenge would help me get a larger number of books read, but it would make me enjoy them less.