No I am not a 45 year old woman just learning how to read. I am however shocked at the amount of adults who do not read. I’m pretty sure, for most, it’s not because they do not know how.
I guess I should not be shocked. I was one of them. I hated to read when I was younger because I thought reading was boring, and I am, in my opinion, a slow reader. I thought in order to be a reader I would also have to read dusty old classics. (no offense if you enjoy dusty old classics)
My mother gave me a copy of Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan (yes it happens to be a dusty old classic) right after my first daughter was born. I read it, and I really enjoyed it (after I got over thee old English language). I then spent a lot of years only reading Christian fiction because I sort of felt locked into it and safe from judgement. I take that back, I did read some paperback romance novels before fleeing into the safe arms of Christian fiction. You know how it is right? If I had to tell someone at church what I was reading, I wouldn’t be judged, true? (true, unless you read The Shack, amazing book by the way)
A few years ago I read the Hunger Games trilogy and I was hooked. I decided to break the chains and read whatever interested me. I bought a Kindle reader and started browsing Amazon religiously. I also joined Goodreads.com and started using their recommendations.
All of that led to me do last year’s 2015 reading challenge from Popsugar.com. It had 50 prompts (52 books in all) for different types of books, meant to get readers out of their comfort zone. I read 36 books. I didn’t complete the challenge, but I think I did pretty great for me. In 2014 I had read 20 books and before that it was less. The challenge definitely got me to read books I would not have read otherwise.
Do you want to know what I found out? Not every book that is considered a classic or great literature is actually good. Some books that have stood the test of time actually suck! I’m looking at you Dorian Gray.
The other thing I finally figured out is that reading is for the reader! Simply put, read what you enjoy. It’s good for the mind. It’s good for the soul.
Well after that long and drawn out story about my reading experience, I said all of that to say this: I was browsing WordPress blogs and ran across one that led me to this amazing how-to picture about reading more. Be sure to follow the link underneath the picture to Austin Kleon’s blog.
Yeah, what he said!
Just A Little Talk With Nonie 
