And now for something completely different! (or is it??)
Sept 5th, 2023 – Hello! In last week’s email, I waxed on about planning and packing and the like. This week I won’t mention any of those topics, I promise!
What will I talk about then??
Wednesday September 6th is National Read a Book Day!
Did you grow up reading for hours and hours like my childhood bestie, Anne? I was so envious of her dedication to reading books by Madeleine L’Engle, Laura Ingalls Wilder, or anything she could get her hands on. She always had a book with her and dedicated lots of time to just reading.
I love books, don’t get me wrong! I just didn’t spend as much time reading as I aspired to. When I was in middle school, my little brother and I spent July with my dad at my aunt and uncle’s cottage on Keuka Lake. (If you’ve never been to the Finger Lakes in New York State, ohhhhh. You must go!) When we weren’t swimming or boating, there wasn’t too much else to do, so my brother and I would walk to the library in Branchport, the tiny town up the road. I loved walking the rows of fiction, picking up hefty tomes that I was certain I could finish in 3 weeks (ha!) and inevitably checking out more than I could read!
Wax nostalgic with me for a minute, would you?
In middle and high school, I remember lots of novels we were forced to read for English class: Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, various Bronte novels, Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, Fahrenheit 451, and of course, Lord of the Flies. I very much liked Old Man and the Sea (mostly because it was SHORT!), but one of them really got to me, still to this day: Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles. I even suggested it for my grown-up book club several years ago so I would read it again!
Then, in college, to get myself to read more, I signed up for a class called “The American Novel” which was both a good and bad idea! It required lots of time, but I know for a fact I’d never have picked up Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, nor anything by Faulkner! Although I’m glad to say I have at least tried to read Faulkner, I’ll never even consider returning to anything by him!! Not my cup of tea.
And let’s talk about how great youth lit is! I think there’s no age limit on reading YL. Anyone who’s read and loved the Harry Potter series, the Percy Jackson books, anything and everything by Roald Dahl, we must be instant friends!
Books grab people in different ways. A deeply favorite book of my now husband, then college boyfriend, is Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. I tried to read it back then, but found it difficult and cumbersome. I wanted to understand what it was about that book that he found so moving. Recently, I listened to it on Audible and it was fantastic! Ah, books!
I love how sometimes you aren’t ready for a particular read, and then later you are! The Giver is one of those for me. And now I’m a full-on Dystopian genre mega-fan!!
As much as I love non-fiction, especially self-development books (I even WROTE one!), there’s simply a divine attraction to fiction. Your mind gets to create vast universes and picture how characters look and move about.
In fact, reading fiction for 6 minutes per day is THE MOST EFFECTIVE STRESS REDUCER OUT THERE!!! Just spend a few moments Google-ing the benefits of reading fiction and you’ll be sold.
Plus, it’s so fun! And if you’re using Audible for your fiction, that’s cool too! Pair it up with taking a walk or folding laundry and it’s a win win, especially if they are intimidatingly long, like Gone With the Wind. OMG that book is phenomenal when listened to on Audible. I suggested it to one of my long-time FOCUS Membership members for her long walks and she LOVED it!
I hope I’ve convinced you to add reading some fiction to your all-important self-care list. I think trashy romance novels count too! My sis-in-law is a huge fan of beach reads and consumes them voraciously for her stress relieving routine.
Books bring us together! Please share some of your favorite books with me!!
We are bringing it back!
Because you need this:
For all of September, we are going all in on your email…it’s so time for you to join us Thursdays at 12p CST for our 45-minute free Digital decluttering workshop! Or watch the replay in our supportive free Facebook group. Take this gift!!!
Binderpaloozas in Sept and November:
The 3.5 hr long Fall Binderpaloozas are here for you! 9/28, 11/2 ($65 each).
Always Available for YOU:
Don’t be shy…book a CALMplimentary 30-minute chat with me!! I mean it. So much can be accomplished in a short time and then you might learn some action steps to help you eat this Fall up!! (instead of the last-minute version you’ve been doing on repeat) Take it back!!!
