books

I'm still trying hard to meet my school-year resolution of reading a new book every week. The only rules I gave myself for this resolution were 1.) the book has to be creative nonfiction or literary fiction & 2.)it has to be a book i haven't read
Sans one crazy semester at Wheaton, I don't think I've ever read close to this many books in five months. Here are some brief thoughts on one semester of reading:

Benefits of said reading plan:
1. Filling in all sorts of gaps in my creative nonfiction knowledge. One of the things that most impressed me at Wyoming was how much our faculty had read--they seemed to have read not only all the classics, but almost all of the new stuff too. I'd like to be one of those people.

2. Bypassing my compulsion to reread the same books endlessly. I like to read Bill Bryson, Joan Didion & Mark Doty, on repeat. It's embarrassing, really. I think I've read Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods at least ten times.

3. Eating away at my comps list. In the fall of my third year here, I'll be taking a comprehensive exam on about 200 books. Most people don't start reading through their list until the spring or summer before. Come fall, lots of panicking and stress ensues. I'm hoping to get through about 100 of those books ahead of time.

4. Finding some new authors I really like.

Drawbacks of said reading plan:
1. I miss reading whatever I want. I'm realizing a lot of my reading used to be fantasy books (Tolkien, Cooper, Lewis) & adventure-travel books (Bryson, Jenkins, etc.) I love those books. I also wish I was reading some good old theology books. If I'm honest, I would say I rarely read these before, but it was nice to have the space in my day and in my head to pick them up if I wanted to.

2. I worry about how much time I'm spending reading. Reading is a terrific activity, of course, and important to my profession--but sometimes I read more than I write. And often, I read and write much more than actually live (get outside, talk to friends, swim.) Since I'm a nonfiction writer, the living is paramount to writing.

My friend Andrew often says, "Discipline is freedom." I'm not great with schedules--I think this is a personality thing. (I always want to leave space for unexpected adventures!) Still, I've thought about Andrew's line a lot in the past few years. I'm realizing discipline doesn't always have to be a bad thing, at least in moderation. I think I'm going to give the reading plan a year. Then I'll reevaluate.