My reading journal year
Slowing Down, continued
As part of my resolution to slow down, I planned to start 2022 with a fresh, crisp new reading journal … but it didn’t quite work out that way.
Back in September, I received my preordered copy of Anne Bogel’s My Reading Life: A Book Journal, which is a perfectly sized, pre-outlined book journal specially designed for book lovers. I put the pretty new journal on my shelf, all ready for when I’d start it on January 1st, because that’s usually how my mind works.
But – and I know the exact date because it’s in my journal – I ended up starting my reading journal on November 23, 2021 for a very important reason: I was reading two books I LOVED, and I didn’t want to wait to record the experience.
Here’s the bookish snapshot that made me start early: I was reading Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller, and The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater: Essays on Crafting by Alanna Okun. My reading epiphany was realizing that I was not only reading two books I loved – but I was also having two reading experiences I wanted to repeat.
Let me slow down there … my wake-up call wasn’t just enjoying what I was reading. That can happen with a book I like but don’t love, or with a genre I’m temporarily visiting but don’t want to stay in for too long.
Enjoying what I’m reading in the moment doesn’t always mean I want to find that reading experience again. I wanted to record this very specific experience of going back and forth between two very different but complementary books because they helped me see what I wanted for my future reading life.
My epiphany was both practical and big-picture, and nuanced and intimate. Both of these books are nonfiction, so I realized that I needed to be finding and reading more nonfiction that I love. I also realized that my love of science nonfiction wasn’t going away any time soon and that this genre could intersect with other genres that are important to me.
Why Fish Don’t Exist intertwines science nonfiction with memoir, and it’s a book about unusual creatures, the origin of life, and animal intelligence, all topics that fascinate me. It was a reading experience that was all about exploring something new. The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater, on the other hand, was a reminder to return to what I love. It’s an essay collection, which is one of my favorite genres, and reading it reminded me of how important this genre is for my wheelhouse and how much I enjoy a truly thoughtful, beautifully written memoir-in-essays.
Capturing this amazing reading experience in my reading journal gave me a foundation and a concrete reminder to read the books I want to read. Not every single book is going to fit me as well as these two did, but at least I have a great starting point.
Thanks for reading. This newsletter is a condensed excerpt from the first episode of a brand-new season of my reading podcast, Reading Like an Adult. Check out My Reading Journal Year Episode 1: You Make the Rules for …
the titles I read for the first month of my Year of Nonfiction
a concrete tip to help you tackle that challenging fiction read
my favorite book of 2022 (so far)