Today is the last day of 2013 which means I’m supposed to
get all sentimental and retrospective.
You know, look back at what this year has meant to me and plan how I’ll
improve as a person in 2014.
Frankly, I’m just not into resolutions. There has only been one time in my life that
I kept a resolution and it was to learn how to make a clicking noise with my
tongue (I was in college and we were bored on New Year’s Eve). Since it took me all of a couple weeks to
master, I was able to keep that one (no long-term commitment there). Before and after that one I have tried many a
year to make and keep a New Year’s Resolution with no success and here is the
thing- Albert Einstein said “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again
and expecting different results.” and I think the resolution thing falls flat
into that category.
Ask anyone who works in any kind of weight loss or exercise facility
and they will tell you that January is always busy, but it dies back down by February. So this falling down on resolutions is
universal.
So now that I’m off that soap-box… here’s what I am having
fun doing this New Year’s Eve – I’m looking back at all the books I’ve
read. Looking back at my Amazon.com
records I have bought 93 books in 2013.
I know that I have never bought a book without at least starting it, but
if I guestimate that I did not finish 10% of those that leaves me having read
about 83 full books (not including any I read twice). Sounds like a good year to me.
But here’s where I find it sad: according to libraries.pewinternet.org
- 7% of Americans ages 16 and older read one book in the previous 12 months
- 14% had read 2-3 books in that time block
- 12% had read 4-5 books in that time block
- 15% had read 6-10 books in that time block
- 13% had read 11-20 books in that time block
- 14% had read 21 or more books in that time block
I find this sad for 2 reasons: #1 that is a ridiculous number
of people to have read only 1 book in the past year and #2 they didn’t even ask
if people had read more than 21 books. How
am I supposed to measure myself… I know there are others out there who have
read as much as me, but how many? Our
public library did a “Read 2 Million” pages goal this summer to get people
reading. They asked people to log how
many pages they had read. Sadly our
small town did not read 2 million, but I understand it was way over 1 mil. In the spirit of fun, they posted the 10 top
readers on a board that was updated weekly.
I never made the top 10. So where
are these amazing people who read 2x-3x as much as I do?
I guess my point is this:
I don’t expect people to read as much as me (most people have other
interests), but I do think it’s time that we stopped making excuses for not
reading. According to the research above
33% of Americans have read less than 6 books a year and 25% have read none! That’s less than one book EVERY OTHER
MONTH!! We can do better than that! I say our New Year’s Resolution should be to
encourage reading… in everyone, but especially our children. I want all our children to have the same
response that my daughter just did when reading this over my shoulder: “That’s SAD!”
They are missing out on so many other worlds and lives.
SO GET READING!!! I
dare anyone to out-read me in 2014 (seriously I would LOVE to have someone comment
on this or any other post that they have read more… that would be so cool!)
This is a thought provoking post. I'm making a resolution to read more books this year and to read less online. Of course, I'll definitely keep reading your blog!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the continued reading of my blog. I'm glad I have inspired you to read more! That is my best hope for this blog... to inspire others to read books!
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