More books, more reading

I've not done a ton of book coverage on this here blog, but I don't really know why (I think about it often).

Reading is the most pleasurable and time-consuming hobby I have and, unless I'm talking about my pups, you're most likely to find me discussing books with friends and acquaintances (and even strangers!), and recommending titles.

I believe that the act of reading can deeply impact us. Whether reading for entertainment, escape, or education, it opens us to new worlds, and to perspectives different from our own.

It allows us as readers to challenge our biases and foster empathy — even when we're not expecting it.

I just finished audio-reading JoJo Moyes' Me Before You, and I will tell you — without any details so I don't spoil it — I had expected an escapist novel. It was so much more. (A really beautiful book, by the way. I highly recommend it.)

All this to say, I'm going to change the lack of books here. I want to share more of my reading world. Watch for more regular posts on recent reads, oldies but goodies, awesome audios, library love, and book news — I might even toss in an author interview every now and again.

Join me? (And let me know what you're reading down below in the comments!)

My life, in books

For the past few weeks, I've been digging into friends' annual reports about their favorite books of 2016. And, of course, adding even more titles to my to-read list — which currently sits at 766.

For reference, at the rate I'm currently pacing, I would need approximately 10 years to read just those. On one hand, that feels daunting and frustrating. On the other hand, I know I won't read them all, and I'm OK with that because the list is much more than just a reminder of what I'll never get to. For almost 10 years now I've been tracking my reading through Goodreads. What I love about Goodreads is not only the ability to easily refer back to what I have read, keep that list of what I want to read (or think I want to read), and learn what my friends are choosing to spend their time with these days, but also to have the opportunity to review the years and see patterns in my reading choices and habits.

• Why did I go through a few months in 2014 of wanting to read (but not actually reading) every single book about moss I could? (Oh right! Elizabeth Gilbert inspired this through The Signature of All Things: A Novel ... and I was training to hike Pikes Peak that same summer, and began seeking out books about the flora and fauna around me as a way to connect more with the trails...)

I've never been a very good journaler. I envy those who can sit down every day or once a week, or with some sort of regularity, and put pen to paper about their days. I've tried numerous times to settle into this type of routine: from plain old self-motivation, to gratitude journals, to formalized Morning Pages. In the end, every time I've come to feel it was a forced process for me, and given up.

What I've realized about Goodreads: For me, it's so much more than a book tracking, rating and reviewing system.

It's a way of journaling through books.

One thousand, four hundred and eighteen titles. Three thousand, six hundred and fifty (ish) days.

Goals and aspirations. Travel near and travel far. Major depressive cycles. Obsessions and compulsions. Dreams and desires. Relationship ups and downs. Professional highs. Professional lows. Passions and practices.

It's all there.

The words of my life.

How are you tracking yours?

Welcoming the new year with new tunes

Happy New Year!

Yes, I realize I'm two weeks behind on the sentiment. Since mid-December, I've been overwhelmed with a new fosterpup, and then both I and my Lucy pup got sick (see example of how we looked in the photo to the right).

As excited as I was about a new year, and about the many ideas I wanted to share with you, I just couldn't muster up a post. (I couldn't even keep up with my Savor blogging project. Which looking back has me a bit bummed out now.)

But that's life sometimes, right? Sometimes we have to choose to step back.

So that's what I did. In addition to much restorative napping, blowing my nose, sipping ginger-lemon-honey-cayenne tea, and making sure Lucy wasn't eating anything she shouldn't be, I've been listening to a lot of music and I wanted to share what I've been dipping in.

You can stream my Seeds Beneath the Snow Winter 2016 playlist below or find it over here on Spotify. It features some of my favorite artists: Gregory Alan Isakov, Tow'rs, Danielle Ate the Sandwich, Tracy Chapman, and Ingrid Michaelson, along with some newer to me.

I hope you enjoy it. Have an amazing weekend and I'll be back next week.

P.S. I've also been reading a lot — I'm seven books in to my goal of reading 78 this year. Have you picked up Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear yet? So. Good.

What's LeVar Burton reading these days? I've got the scoop

As a fan, I'm thrilled to learn that I share something in common with actor/author/director/producer/all-around-cool-guy LeVar Burton: We're both Neil Gaiman fans.

I know this because when I interviewed him for a story for the Colorado Springs Independent that ran in yesterday's issue — he'll be speaking in the Springs on April 27 — we not only talked about his acting (from Roots to Star Trek: The Next Generation), Reading Rainbow and how he became a literacy advocate, but we also talked about what we were both reading.

Top of his list? Gaiman's newest, Trigger Warning.

And it is a list he runs through. Because also, like me, he reads more than one title at a time.

"I picked up that habit from my mother," LeVar says. "I blame her."

So what else is he reading then?

"Wild Child, by T.C. Boyle. He and I are both being honored by the L.A. Times Book Awards this year, and so I want to make sure that I've boned up on T.C. When I meet him, I want to be able to talk T.C. Boyle with T.C. Boyle."

Also on the list: The Essential Martin Luther King Jr., and works by Octavia Butler (his favorite sci-fi author) and Joyce Carol Oates. He also says that science fiction is "the one that is my genre" and so The Year's Best Science Fiction, an anthology edited by Gardner Dozois, is something else he's always got going — for both the sci-fi and the short fiction elements.

"I like reading short fiction at night before I go to sleep," he explains. "In one or two nights I can get through a story, and sometimes, depending on their length, two in a night before I drop off to sleep.

"Short fiction for me is, like, wow. You've really got to be a master of the craft to write short fiction well because there are no wasted words. You really have to be relevant and concisely precise. In any genre."

If you've been following LeVar's career (and/or have kids), you'll know that he just published his first children's book in the fall, The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm. Between that and his Reading Rainbow work, I asked him if he could recommend any books for kids.

"There are two that I tend to recommend in terms of picture book, which is the literature that we promote ... on the show because we are all about reaching the entry-level reader. Turning that child into a reader for life. Encouraging them to make that decision, self-select if you will, as a reader for life," he says.

"One is Derek Munson’s Enemy Pie. It's a story about a young boy who has an enemy move into the neighborhood, and his father vows to help him resolve it by making enemy pie for the boy and it has a surprise twist ending. I won't spoil it for you if you haven't read it. ... And then I also love Mary Hoffman's Amazing Grace. I recommend that book liberally. It's about a young girl Grace who wants to play Peter Pan in her school play but she gets resistance from her classmates because she is neither a boy and she is black as well. And it is Grace's journey of awakening as to the power of her imagination, and why she is uniquely suited in the end to play the character of Peter Pan."

I don't know about you, but I've just added, oh, five or six books to my to-reads. Thanks LeVar!

(Note: Book links in this piece lead to an affiliate program, from which I may make a commission.)

Author Gretchen Rubin says I do not have to make my bed

Last week I interviewed The Happiness Project's Gretchen Rubin for a story for The Simple Dollar, on how to master your money habits.

As is often the case, the interview veered away from the primary topic, and we spoke openly about her new book, Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives (pub. date: March 17) and the difficulty with making something a habit.

At one point, I said to her, "I tried making my bed for 30 days. It worked ... for 30 days."

She said, "Ah yeah, that's the finish-line problem."

(A finish line, as discussed in her book, "divides behavior that we want to follow indefinitely — to run, to write, to practice — into 'start' and 'stop,' and all too often, the 'stop' turns out to be permanent." It can be helpful for individual goals — for instance, the goal of running a marathon at the end of this summer — but it's not helpful for permanent behavior change.)

I added, "I haven't made my bed since."

"Is that right?" she said. "Well, there you go."

And then she asked me, "Why do you want to do it? Why bother? I'm just saying that really truthfully. Why would you bother?  Like why not not do it? Do you care? Because maybe you don't care. Do you care?"

[It was at this point that I realized she has been interviewing me as much as I had interviewed her during this phone call, but we both acknowledged that and had a good laugh.]

My answer to her about whether I cared about the bed being made?

"No. Probably not."

I've written on the blog before about making my bed (about that 30-day attempt actually). I've never been a bed-maker but something in me last year said it might help me feel more organized. An article I'd read (this is often how I get into trouble) encouraged me to use making my bed as a way to prioritize starting my day off with more structure — literally and figuratively.

But really, when it comes down to it, I think making the bed is about a case of the "shoulds" for me.

I'm an adult. I should be responsible. I should want my room to look clean and organized. I should feel a sense of accomplishment because my covers are all tucked under.

I should make the bed.

Unfortunately for the organization goddesses (and probably my husband), I don't care.

Perhaps letting these particular "shoulds" go would be better for me. Per Gretchen:

There's a great Samuel Johnson quote that I can't remember and I should memorize it because I always want to quote it, where he says, ‘All severity that does not increase good or prevent evil is idle.’ Meaning anything that you're doing that's not doing some good in the world, like why bother with it? And I think a lot of people are like, 'Oh I need to give up coffee.' And I'm like, 'Well, why give up coffee? I'm not saying you shouldn't give up coffee. I'm just saying why would you give up coffee? ’Cause if you like coffee, why would you give it up? I mean, maybe there's a reason, but a lot of times, people don't even really have a reason. ... Don't feel bad about a habit that you can't form that you don't even care about, that wouldn't even make your life better. I mean, forget about that. There's other stuff you should do.

Amen.

Of course, she did add, "I am a big believer in making your bed, but it's not for everybody."

Noted, Gretchen, noted.

And now I think I'm going to go take a nap ... in my unmade bed.