Read more? Read better?

Happy New Year! I hope 2013 is starting well for you and you had a happy and convivial Holiday Season.

Moon at Christmas

I’m comfortable with the cycle of commitment and lapse that is the New Year Resolution habit – the practical ones relating to living well & being healthy.

But I was surprised to hear on the BBC over Christmas that the most popular resolution this new year is:

READ MORE

Journal Prompt: What books were memorable in 2012? What do you remember about them now?

 

Several people said to me words to the effect that ‘You? You couldn’t possibly read more’ which is perhaps true in terms of time. As a bookish child I was as comfortable inhabiting the interior world of a novel as my own family back garden I would choose the characters of a fictional world over those in my school playground. A literature degree trained me to read fast – an author a week plus a clutch of critical essays.

Journal Prompt: What’s your reading history? How were your reading habits formed? Do you remember learning to read?

So many books……

But I could read better – so my resolution became:

READ BETTER

Read Better – meaning pay more attention, take notes, read more of the words, process information, think about it, assimilate it. Or at least with some books.

Here’s some of my reading this New Year:

Laurence Gonzales: Surviving Survival – the art & science of resilience

Hazel Barnes: The Story I Tell Myself – a venture in Existentialist Autobiography

Inger Christiansen: Alphabet (poems)

Stephen Dunn : Walking Light – memoirs & essays on poetry

and some novels of course (not read better) …………..

Thank you for gifts or recommendations of  these books.

What are you reading this New Year? Let us know.

And finally…….. The Third Eye: A Reflective Writing Group for Therapists & Healing Professionals resumes on Monday 14th January. For information click here.