I am sure you are all familiar with the phrase, “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.” This saying certainly applies to the progress I made on my yearly reading goal. As you know, I vowed to read 52 books this year, and I was doing extremely well towards this by the end of February, and I even added some more books during the month of March, but most of those books were children’s books and so I feel that while I entered the month on a roll, I didn’t really keep that momentum going.
What about you? How are you doing on your reading this year? Maybe you have a yearly goal, or maybe you just like to read for pleasure without any pressure to finish so many books in a given time period? I found March to be difficult. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was because Spring finally arrived on March 20, or maybe it was because we turned the clocks ahead on March 13th, or maybe it was the weather, or maybe I was watching too much TV! And so I decided to reflect on what happened in the month of March and it came to me that I have begun too many books! That’s right too many books. Right now I’m reading seven books at one time. I don’t find it difficult to keep the characters and plots separate, but at the same time I also don’t finish books. I keep bouncing back and forth between historical fiction, history, mystery, etc.
And then there is television. With the advent of all these streaming services there are so many television shows available to watch, and many of these are based upon a book. Now if I like the TV show then I want to read the book. And not just read the book, I want to read it right now! And so I begin another book even though I may have four or five other books that I am currently reading. This has happened twice this month as I, for the first time, watched the Netflix series The Last Kingdom. I didn’t know at that time that it was based upon a book, and not just one book, but 13 books. and so I looked on my Kindle, where I discovered that I had Book One. I had no idea when I had downloaded that book but there it was, and so I decided to start that very first book. But it doesn’t end there. I also began watching a Turkish TV series on Netflix called Midnight at the Pera Palace, and I really enjoyed that series which is based upon a book. The title was familiar and, lo and behold, there it was on my Kindle. Well, you know what’s coming next, yep I started that book. I just can’t help myself. And I like all these books, which may be the problem. I know there are many people who use the 50-page rule when reading books, and if they don’t like a book at the end of the first 50 pages they just stop reading it. I have never subscribed to that, and to be quite honest after 50 pages I’ve enjoyed all of these books.
So there is a dilemma, too many books, too many good books, and I’m watching just enough TV so that I want to read the books upon which the shows are based. So I have seven books started on my Kindle, I think I will finish one of them in the next day, and then I can begin with some of the others, meanwhile I keep getting books from NetGalley and, oh, those books look so good. What is a person to do?
The simple answer is just keep reading, the more complex answer is stop adding books to your reading list until you finish what you’re reading. That’s very hard for me to do. What about you? What are your reading habits? When the Kindle first came out I bought it but did not like it that much. Since then I have grown older and I now find that the Kindle is easier for me to read because I can control the font size and the brightness of the screen. Plus, a big added extra is that I don’t have to carry a book with me. I don’t even have to carry my Kindle with me, I just go to my Apple phone, hit the Kindle app and there is my book. How much easier can reading be?
It also doesn’t help that this month I have joined three or four different book groups on Facebook. Now I’m not a big Facebook user, but I have enjoyed these groups in which I can both share my thoughts as well as the books I am reading, and pick up ideas about books from other people. This just adds to my dilemma as I found more and more books that piqued my interest. So, as the month of March comes to an end I have finished 26 books and I am halfway to my yearly goal.
Now, I would love to hear from you. How are you doing with your reading? Are you enjoying my monthly blogs, do you enjoy my book reviews? A few people have giving me a thumbs up on those reviews, but I have not heard any comments from anybody and I really like to read what people think. After the first two months of this website the two most popular book reviews that I have posted are for the books Electric City and Munich. I am so pleased that you are reading not just those two reviews but reviews of all my books I have posted. Yes, we’re a bit behind on getting up some of the cover art for the books, but we’ll get there meanwhile please keep reading, please keep following my blogs and website and please let me know how you were doing on your 2022 reading. I send you best wishes and hope that April, and those April showers, will give all of us a little more time to do some quality reading.
