Slow Reading: Why I'm Not Worried About My Reading Goals

A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face.  It is one of the few havens remaining where a man's mind can get both provocation and privacy.  

~ Edward P. Morgan

Beginning in January, I am participating in the One Page a Day Challenge.  Hopefully by the end of the year, I'll have 365 pages worth editing.  I’m also trying to follow My Plan for 2014.  I may need therapy by December.  Oh wait…

I

haven’t written in a while.  I wish I could say it’s because I’m burning through my TBR list and getting ready to break my 2013 GoodReads record for books read.

But the truth is I’m tired.  And ready to slow down a little.  The body and the spirit were not made to be run at a frenetic pace.  It’s no wonder we crash and burn – some of us literally – when we have longer commutes, higher expectations at work and at home, and time spent with family or with friends is almost never just restful thanks to social media and the invention of the smartphone.

So right now, I am proudly eight books behind on my reading challenge.  Why proud?

Because I am taking the time to read thoughtful books and not just penny paranormals.  Not that penny paranormals aren’t fun or can’t have profound moments in them.

But I have had a hankering to delve back into the non-fiction world as a reader and not just a writer.  This means it will take more time to finish reading, especially when I’m writing (or highlighting on my Kindle app) in the margins and making notes to research more about minor subjects that come up.

The first non-fiction I read this year was Gary Paulsen’s Winterdance, a book about his first run of the Iditarod Dog Sled Race up in Alaska.  I never thought a dog musher could be a poet, but that man has the gift of poetically capturing the beauty, grandeur, and danger of Mother Nature.   

Image credit: Google search

His a man’s man, so you have to take the good with the bad, just as he did when running his dogs.  If I were facing impossible odds, over 100 miles per hour winds and snowstorms, I’d let loose a few choice words myself!

Reading Winterdance has renewed my taste for wilderness writing.  So now I’ve begun John Muir’s (my favorite book boyfriend – wait, does he count for that, since he’s the author – and dead to boot?)  Travels in Alaska. 

And I’m back in wilderness and writerly paradise.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

What to join me in taking the slow road?  Read more about taking it slow over at Chatting at the Sky!