New Year's Resolutions in July

I realize that July is a bit late for New Year’s Resolutions, but here’s mine anyway.

Those who know me know I read—like crazy, all the time, anything I can get my hands on. That doesn't mean I read exceptionally fast, but I manage to plug away, always reading (or listening to!) something (usually procured from the public library where my life struggle is to keep my fines under $10 and therefore keep my account active), and I usually clock in at about 75 books a year. This is good, I suppose, and I am pleased with my post-collegiate self for continuing to learn and study and sharpen my mind. However, I‘m beginning to be concerned about the way I am interacting with all these books. Am I dialoguing with them? Am I letting them sit inside me and change/form me? Or am I reading them so quickly and in such a manner that they are “in one ear, and out the other”? I’m also troubled by the amount of retention I am capable of with this style of reading.

I believe that we read for a variety of reasons, and one of the most important is personal formation. Reading has always seemed to me equivalent with growing, if done properly, and it has always felt like the most important thing I do. So I’m troubled by the possibility that I’m strictly consuming books instead of interacting with them. I want to have a record not only of what I've read, but of what I've learned and how it has formed my mind and my heart.

To that end, I present my reading project for 2014 (I've already been working on it, just not publicly):  I am going to write about the books I read.  So then, when I look back at what I read in 2014, I will have not just a list of books, but a collection of new thoughts, questions, ideas, insights, favorite memories and images, and a record of the way my life intersected with the books I was reading. I also think it will help me to read more attentively, with greater care and thoughtfulness. I don’t want to be a passive reader—it goes against all the reasons I find reading so valuable.

I think that whatever I write will look less like book reviews and more like reflections on whatever thoughts and questions the book stirred up for me. I also hope that it provides an environment in which to dialogue with others about good and great books because the absence of that dialogue is definitely the thing I miss most from college and assuredly the thing I feel most lacking in my daily life. Is there anything more meaningful and delightful than reading and talking about books? Yes, of course there are some things—but not a lot, so here goes. 

Oh, and I’ll always warn if there are spoilers, even for classics, because maybe you haven’t read Harry Potter yet, but certainly will one day.