Leisure Reading

Growing up, my mom used to take my sisters and I to bookstores on the weekends just to sit and read. Borders (a major throwback) and Barnes & Nobles were our favorite. All we needed was a cup of hot chocolate (no matter what the weather was outside), a pastry from the bakery, a new read and we would be in there for hours. Times like those will always be a highlight in my memory because I was able to discover some good books, some that I still have to this day.

I think we started this “tradition” when I was in middle school and kept it up until I went to high school. This is when the heavy required reading started, which I really didn’t mind since I spent most weekends reading anyways. I had a few favorite books in high school: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Catcher and the Rye by J.D. Salinger and To Kill a Mockingbird by Maya Angelou. In the 10th grade, we had monthly reading assignments. We were required to pick one book that we never read, finish it and write a report on it. I remember taking a trip down to Parkway Central Library and finding a book by Truman Capote: “In Cold Blood.” I remember hearing about the book from the classroom scene in “Save the Last Dance.” The students were asked why the book was so monumental in American society and Julia and Derrick had a heated debate about it. I grabbed the book, checked it out and immediately started reading it. It’s honestly still one of my favorite books to this day.

I think my joy of leisure reading stopped once I got to college. There was so much required reading, that I really didn’t have time, nor did I want to make time for leisure reading. From AP English classes in high school to English and capstone classes in college, I was over it.

In 2019, a group of friends and I started this mini book club. We all started posting books we were reading on our Instagram stories and next thing you know, we decided to dedicate that year to reading 20 books. We were on a roll and even people who weren’t apart of it were tagging me in books they were reading as well. Of course, we fell off, and I lost count, but I still tried to keep the momentum going every year. Last year, I ended the year reading Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” book and felt so inspired, that I told myself that 2023 would be the year that I would knock 20 books out. I’m currently on my 11th book, 9 more to go.

I’m honestly proud of myself because the word of this year is definitely consistency. I wanted to be consistent in everything I did, especially reading. When they say that reading is fundamental, it really is. I also think it’s important to broaden your horizons when it comes to reading. Those self-help books, and how-to books are good, but have you ever read a really good mystery in a while?

Here's a list of all the books I’ve read so far from the very first book of the year to my current:

1. The Mastery of Love- Don Miguel Ruiz

2. Things Fall Apart- Chinua Achebe

3. Lovecraft County- Matt Ruff

4. Americanah- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

5. Half of a Yellow Sun- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

6. Friction- Sandra Brown

7. A Thousand Splendid Suns- Khaled Hosseini

8. Slay Your Legacy- Pen Legacy

9. Edgar Allan- John Neufeld

10. Trace of Evil- Alice Blanchard

11. Currently listening to the audio version of: The Sexual Practices of Quodoushka by Amara Charles and honestly, I rather have the physical copy in my hand. Audio books aren't for me.

---