A pal lately broached the topic of my Goodreads Studying Problem. I’ve had many such discussions up to now – what I’m studying, how usually, underneath what circumstances. There was a lot understanding when my studying slowed significantly through the first trimester of being pregnant. And now, fortunately, the bar could be very low as I trudge by means of life with an toddler.
So how, my pal needed to know, had I already learn 13 books this yr? Of my 20-book problem purpose? How?
“Oh,” I stated with amusing. “I cheat.”
I defined that I went on a little bit of a comics bender, plowing by means of trades of my favourite comics, devouring each Paper Women, dipping into Lucy Knisley’s newest graphic memoir.
She nodded. “Ah, okay.” That made sense. Picture-heavy, much less textual content, fewer pages.
And that was the tip of it. However because the dialog moved on, one thing bothered me. Why did I select the phrase “cheat”?
The Goodreads Problem is a metric of amount. We set a purpose of plenty of books to learn. There are not any qualifiers right here. If it’s a ebook, it counts, no matter content material, web page rely, or format. A ebook is a ebook is a ebook. Did I learn it? Then it counts. Add it to the pile.
I’ve been writing about books for a great whereas now, and I’ve been immersed on the planet of books and studying, in a method or one other, for years. I 100% imagine in equality throughout genres, media, content material. And but, “I cheat”?
The internalized insecurity here’s what actually bubbled to the floor. My studying isn’t ok. Not official sufficient. My studying life has modified a lot over the previous two years – slumps, books I abandon as a result of I’m too exhausted to energy by means of them, books I can’t get by means of as a result of the content material is simply too uncooked for my smushy, sentimental mama coronary heart. I’ve modified as a reader, and that leaves me feeling untethered, unproductive, in some way failing.
And so my apology for in search of out different varieties, for studying a lot lower than I used to, so in another way – my apology for altering who I’m as a reader and an individual – was that I cheat. However studying comics isn’t dishonest, the identical method that studying audiobooks or cookbooks isn’t dishonest.
A ebook is a ebook is a ebook. And a reader is an individual who’s given to vary. And that’s all okay. That every one manifests in our studying lives. It’s a lesson that I didn’t notice I wanted to be taught once more.
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