It’s a sad fact that I could probably count the number of non-grad-school books I’ve read in the past 3 years on one hand. Granted, I loved most of the content I read during grad school, but I was rarely reading “for fun” and I got out of the habit.
I was a bookworm growing up – I loved going to the library with my mom, and I was the kid who read under the covers with a flashlight way past my bedtime. I truly think the rise of the internet and social media contributed to me reading less over the past few years – rather than reading before going to sleep or when I have some downtime, I scroll through my Instagram feed and catch up on blogs.
One of my goals during my leave of absence is to read more – in fact, to get back into the habit of reading during my downtime, this December I’ve started my own #bookaweek challenge! I’ll be posting the books I read on Instagram, and I also just started using Goodreads. I’d love your suggestions for books I should add to my reading list!
One of the first books I started with was Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Cem and I picked this up at Kramerbooks a few months ago because we knew we wanted to better organize our tiny 750 square foot apartment and had heard great things about this method.
I honestly didn’t like it at first – its a bit repetitive and the author takes tidying way too seriously for my own liking (folding socks the wrong way is a “fatal” mistake). But the author is strangely charming and at the core, she hits on important truth – only surround yourself with things that are absolutely necessary and that bring you joy, and be grateful for and respectful of what you have. Now isn’t that true about life in general – not just about your clothing and paperwork? Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go recycle the 2 giant trash bags of paper that I’ve accumulated over the years…