I love this combination of you being a chaotic reader but also having very structured categories and goals! This is very familiar territory to me. (I arrived via SmallStack/SmallTalk, and chaos-structure is the reason behind my publication name!)
Yes!!! I try to just give myself categories or buckets, and then let myself roam within them. I don't take too kindly to being told what to do (even if I'm telling myself what to do) so I figured I'd give myself a goal but then some flexibility within it.
Welcome to the chaotic reading party! I hope you enjoy :)
Not taking kindly to being told what to do, even when it is me doing the telling, is very familiar! I love structure and rules, but I also rebel against them constantly (even though I made the rules?!). 🤦♀️
Brains are fun aren't they?! 🤣 I totally get that. I need some structure but not too much and some free time but not too much. I'm basically Goldilocks.
My only new year resolution is to not make any new year resolutions, much less publicise them! I have goals, but new goals emerge all the time. You read at a phenomenal pace. I thought I was a quick reader, but blimey. Hats off to you!
Thanks Terry! The accountability piece is what really helps me. Knowing that I have to fess up to someone (anyone) even if it's just myself shouting into a void on the internet helps me keep on task with my goals. Otherwise I sink into this very nihilistic, unhelpful view point of 'well nothing matters and no one cares so why bother anyways' 😆
Fair enough, Marissa. My problem is that I'm very good at beating myself up for not doing X instead of Y on a day-to-day basis. For example, if I spend Saturday afternoon writing, I think I should have spent it reading, and vice-versa. The absolutely last thing I need is to have a whole year's-worth of resolutions to beat myself up over!
Very true. No need to beat yourself up over resolutions. I try to think of them as goals and not resolutions, so they can be actionable items and not just some ephemeral thing I may one day achieve.
I never set goals like this so I am in awe of your dedication! I have at least one fiction and many non-fiction on the go at a time and I am also reading the Cromwell Trilogy and War & Peace as a slow read with the wonderful @simonhaisell at Footnotes and Tangents :)
Thanks Jacqui!! I find it helpful to track progress and figure out what I need to do next.
I read War and Peace in college for fun (not sure what was wrong with me lol) and still need to finish the last of the Cromwell trilogy books! I hope you're enjoying them.
Tolstoy definitely feels like one of those things to read just for having the clout to say you did it. I don't think I've read anything else by him since then, either.
I took arrived from SmallStack/SmallTalk and my reading is, at best, chaotic. For a while the side of my bed was covered in books where I would select the nights reading from a haphazard pile. For now, they are organized on the floor French style and when I say organized, fixed so the stacks don't topple over.
That's such a lovely visual Lisa! I've got a few book piles on my floor, too, despite having COPIOUS bookcases in my house. I have a friend who made her second bedroom a library, and she regularly gets asked on Zoom calls where she got her 'background'.
It's been a long time since I've read any novels in French and I'm not proficient by any means. Just looking for something that may challenge me a bit more than Duolingo. La Class de Neige seems like something I'd be able to read but I'll save it for the winter!
I love it! La Classe de Neige was short, so I'd recommend it. Le Petit Prince is always a good one if you're looking for something a bit easier, along with Le Petit Nicolas series by Rene Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempe. Happy to give more recommendations if you're looking for them!
i love the honesty. I have almost completely abandoned by original summer TBR and I feel this deep need to tell everyone about how I was completely wrong about myself - you have inspired me!
I love this combination of you being a chaotic reader but also having very structured categories and goals! This is very familiar territory to me. (I arrived via SmallStack/SmallTalk, and chaos-structure is the reason behind my publication name!)
Yes!!! I try to just give myself categories or buckets, and then let myself roam within them. I don't take too kindly to being told what to do (even if I'm telling myself what to do) so I figured I'd give myself a goal but then some flexibility within it.
Welcome to the chaotic reading party! I hope you enjoy :)
Not taking kindly to being told what to do, even when it is me doing the telling, is very familiar! I love structure and rules, but I also rebel against them constantly (even though I made the rules?!). 🤦♀️
Brains are fun aren't they?! 🤣 I totally get that. I need some structure but not too much and some free time but not too much. I'm basically Goldilocks.
My only new year resolution is to not make any new year resolutions, much less publicise them! I have goals, but new goals emerge all the time. You read at a phenomenal pace. I thought I was a quick reader, but blimey. Hats off to you!
Thanks Terry! The accountability piece is what really helps me. Knowing that I have to fess up to someone (anyone) even if it's just myself shouting into a void on the internet helps me keep on task with my goals. Otherwise I sink into this very nihilistic, unhelpful view point of 'well nothing matters and no one cares so why bother anyways' 😆
Fair enough, Marissa. My problem is that I'm very good at beating myself up for not doing X instead of Y on a day-to-day basis. For example, if I spend Saturday afternoon writing, I think I should have spent it reading, and vice-versa. The absolutely last thing I need is to have a whole year's-worth of resolutions to beat myself up over!
Very true. No need to beat yourself up over resolutions. I try to think of them as goals and not resolutions, so they can be actionable items and not just some ephemeral thing I may one day achieve.
Hmm. A rose by any other name etc 🤣
I never set goals like this so I am in awe of your dedication! I have at least one fiction and many non-fiction on the go at a time and I am also reading the Cromwell Trilogy and War & Peace as a slow read with the wonderful @simonhaisell at Footnotes and Tangents :)
Thanks Jacqui!! I find it helpful to track progress and figure out what I need to do next.
I read War and Peace in college for fun (not sure what was wrong with me lol) and still need to finish the last of the Cromwell trilogy books! I hope you're enjoying them.
Love the Mantel books - indifferent about Tolstoy 🤷♀️
Tolstoy definitely feels like one of those things to read just for having the clout to say you did it. I don't think I've read anything else by him since then, either.
I took arrived from SmallStack/SmallTalk and my reading is, at best, chaotic. For a while the side of my bed was covered in books where I would select the nights reading from a haphazard pile. For now, they are organized on the floor French style and when I say organized, fixed so the stacks don't topple over.
That's such a lovely visual Lisa! I've got a few book piles on my floor, too, despite having COPIOUS bookcases in my house. I have a friend who made her second bedroom a library, and she regularly gets asked on Zoom calls where she got her 'background'.
Progress is progress! I'd love to hear which books you've read in French.
I'm currently reading Les Choses par Georges Perec, and making my way (slowly but surely) through Leila Slimani's Le Pays des Autres.
As far as what I have read en francais this year:
Em, by Kim Thuy
Encre sympathique, by Patrick Modiano
La Class de neige, by Emmanuel Carrere
What's on your French radar??
It's been a long time since I've read any novels in French and I'm not proficient by any means. Just looking for something that may challenge me a bit more than Duolingo. La Class de Neige seems like something I'd be able to read but I'll save it for the winter!
I love it! La Classe de Neige was short, so I'd recommend it. Le Petit Prince is always a good one if you're looking for something a bit easier, along with Le Petit Nicolas series by Rene Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempe. Happy to give more recommendations if you're looking for them!
i love the honesty. I have almost completely abandoned by original summer TBR and I feel this deep need to tell everyone about how I was completely wrong about myself - you have inspired me!
I am honored!!! Might as well be honest because Goodreads don’t lie.
(Except mine does cause I use The Storygraph)