I’m on Goodreads and I’m always interested to see the site review my Year in Books at the end of December. I knew I hadn’t been reading a lot this year and I was right: 131 books.
(All images are randomly selected from this year’s reading).
Wait, I said, was that really unusual? I took a look at my bookmarked reports on past years:
2018: 243
2021: 205
2022: 259
2024: 159
So a marked drop off from peak years. But not a continuous drop-off, as last year was the highest. So it’s not just a steady wearying down or a steady increase in distractions from social media. So then what?
Part of it is the increasing demands of dog care. And that a year ago we brought Snowdrop into the house. Two cats demanding food or water in the morning adds up to more distraction than one.
A bigger part, I think, is that our schedules have been a lot more unstable this past year (I’m not quite surewhy). There are small but not insignificant chunks of time where I wind up either with not enough time to sit down and focus, or I’m not sure how much time I have, so I wind up scrolling social media or something equally pointless (I like social media but if I don’t really want to look at it, it’s pointless).
Another factor is the sheer number of little things that keep nagging and distracting me. Friday evening I wanted to concentrate on reading but I kept thinking of all the things I should be dealing with — a bill or two to pay, paperwork to fill out for dog appointments, contractors to contact. I do my best to stay on top of it (it’s part of my contribution to our household operations) but every so often it gets backed up and I feel I have to handle every single aspect of it NOW.
A minor part is that as my novel and nonfiction reading slows down, my comic book reading slows down, and that used to add a lot of books to my list.
I’m not sure what the fix is, but I intend to find one. For starters, not wasting those little chunks of time. We’ll see if that helps (I suspect I waste more than I realize that way).
Back to normal reviews next week. All rights to images remain with current holders.
