I'm feeling...dare I say it...refreshed.
2017 is just around the corner and I am ready for it. 2016 was a garbage year.
Personally, it was fine. I learned to knit early in the year. Took a nice "staycation" with my family. (It had its ups and downs, but what vacation doesn't?) I reopened my Etsy Shop and it's been doing okay. I went back to work this summer too.
I was busy. I felt like much of my time was filled with activity. As a result, my reading suffered. When I was reading, I often felt like I wasn't reading anything that excited me. There were some great books, but a lot of forgettable ones. And ones I never finished. My DNF list for 2016 is loooong.
This week I'm reading something great. Something that really speaks to me: They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple. I don't want to get up from my couch. I don't want to check my phone, or do anything else. I can't remember the last time I felt that way.
My wish for 2017 is more books like this. I want to feel this way about everything I read. What that means for me is that this year, I'm going to give up on a lot of books. That might sound terrible, but I feel like that needs to happen. Reading shouldn't feel like a chore that needs to be done. I'm going to be a quitter. I will get myself out of this reading slump by quitting books that don't make me feel something. I will overwhelm my brain with books that excite me and toss the ones that I can't get excited about. It's not that these books are bad, they just aren't doing it for me. It might mean I read fewer books in 2017, but that's okay.
I'm ending this year with a book that makes me feel happy, and I hope to go into 2017 feeling more optimistic about reading, and possibly the world (I can hope). I am hopeful that reading great books will make me want to write about them here on the blog too.
2017. Here I come.