Winner, winner chicken dinner! Andrea, that signed copy of The Four Dimensions of Extraordinary Leadership: The Power of Leading from Your Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength
belongs to you. I hope you enjoy!
A couple last thoughts on reading more in 2016…
Where I get good books.
Not considering any other factors, I’d prefer to buy every book I read. I like books. I like to hold them. I like to see them on my shelves, decorate with them. I like to mark them up, underlining favorite sentences, circling favorite words and descriptions, adding notes to the margin.
I feel slightly handicapped reading without a pen by my side.
I don’t mind the library, actually I’m pretty fond of it. Unfortunately, they aren’t fond of my reading-with-a-pen habit. And I’m not always a fan of waiting in line. That “there are currently 5 holds on this books” message makes me grumpy.
Yet, buying every book I read is really not feasible. It’s a waste of money and the first book I read this year The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, (affiliate links to follow) has me convinced I really don’t need more books on my shelves anyway.
So here is how my reading is changing just a bit this year.
- Making friends with e-books. Careful before you shudder, I’m a slow adopter too. But I tried a few last year and they really aren’t completely awful. I don’t have a kindle, but I added the kindle app to my iPad and it really works quite smoothly. The best part? Great prices! Amazon frequently, but temporarily, reduces prices on the kindle version of popular titles to only a dollar or two. I keep an eye out for kindle deals on titles that are on my reading list, grab them when they are cheap and then they are ready and waiting for me, further helping my “never be without a book to read” rule. I doubt this will ever be my preferred method of reading books, but it’s worth it to add e-books to the mix.
Note: A couple great ones on sale right now are Living Well Spending Less, Own Your Life, and The Fringe Hours. Just remember to click the kindle version and know these prices are only good for a very limited time. Amazon shakes up the prices regularly.
- Enter the Commonplace Journal. I’ve been thinking about starting one of these for some time now and for 2016 I took the plunge. For those of you not familiar with commonplace books, they are simply a time tested method of collecting thoughts, quote, anecdotes and reflections. Ralph Waldo Emerson kept one, as did Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Woolf and a host of others. I think reading is too valuable to risk letting great thoughts and ideas just slip through our fingers, but honestly, I’ve never been a fan of journaling. It has always felt like another obligation to me. Thankfully, this feels different. I write down Bible verses and quotes, questions and ideas, anything that catches my attention, I want to nail down or reflect on a bit. As an added bonus, it keeps me from writing in those library books. If you want more information, Mystie breaks down her super simplified method of using one over here.
Those are two ways I’m doing books a little differently in 2016.
What about you? How do you prefer to read your books? Ever thought of keeping a commonplace journal? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Wishing you a wonderful weekend!
Two of my favorite things – reading and writing! I also prefer holding a physical book to reading a book online, but have been appreciating the advantages of Kindle books this year. I used Kindle (on my Mac and iPhone) last semester for some of my assigned reading. After teaching all day long, the last thing I want to do is read a “bookish” book. So I bought the Kindle version and the audio version of the books whenever possible. This way my tired eyes followed along as the soothing voice of a narrator read my homework to me. I could listen with my iPhone during my commute and the Kindle and Audible apps on both of my devices would both keep track of where I stopped. So convenient! Oh, Technology, how do we love you!
Thank you for the tip about watching for price drops on books on our wish list. I hadn’t thought about that!
Perfect timing, Katie. Just yesterday I was thinking about how to capture quotes and scripture in a meaningful way. I already have several notebooks on the go, so when I read “Simply Convivial” it kind of put it together for me. I like having a name for what I already sort of do – “Commonplace Journal” – but also this helps me to fine tune it some more – such as, being more deliberate to capture those fascinating quotes and scriptures that impact me as I am reading a book, a blog, or whatever. Otherwise, they do get lost.
Like you, I have never been a fan of journaling (so it took me a long time to see myself as a writer) but having a Commonplace Journal is something that works for me. I also like the idea of scanning into the powerful Evernote program, as I like even less the clutter of notebooks, in spite of the fact that I prefer to write quotes and scriptures down rather than type them into a computer, which is cumbersome when in a reading mode.
Thanks again, Katie, for writing this.
I hear you, Diane! I do so much underlining in books and yet those parts I really want to internalize are gone the moment I turn the page if don’t capture them somehow. I’m loving having an intentional spot to do just that.