Another goal I’ve been working on is finishing the Top 100 Children’s Books. Earlier this year it occurred to me that I’d had the list on my blog for a long time but hadn’t made much progress on it. The reason for my lack of progress was obvious–I hadn’t pushed myself to read any of the books. One of my worst habits is always assuming that I’ll get to things eventually. It’s a stupid assumption. Nothing in life ever gets done unless you go out of your way to do it.
So I started actively seeking out the books. My approach to reading them was simple: I put them in the bathroom. I always read when I’m in the bathroom. I can’t help myself. And even if it’s just a couple of pages each time, it adds up. I’ve read at least 15 from the list since I started deliberately leaving books in the bathroom. There are only 23 left on the list. I bet I could finish them by the end of the year if I really tried.
There are two downsides to my approach, though. For one thing, I would never put valuable books in the bathroom. There’s a lot of moisture in there, and moisture can be the death of books. Consequently only cheap soft-covers are allowed, and never loaners from the library. That means I have to buy the books, and books aren’t free.
The other downside is that I haven’t been reading the magazines that I would normally read in the bathroom. I have three magazine subscriptions, and I haven’t kept up with any of them lately. TBH, I wasn’t entirely keeping up with them before. I should drop one or two of the subscriptions. I can always resubscribe later if it seems like I’m running short on bathroom reading material.
So, now I am decided: I’m going to buy as many books as necessary to finish the list by the end of the year, and I’m going to drop two magazine subscriptions.