Book Binge

 

2020 changed a lot of things for me as I'm sure it did for so many others. I realized how many un-essential things I filled my time with. I realized what was important to me and what I truly needed to do. I was in a different place than so many of my friends. Not having children I did not need to deal with virtual/hybrid/traditional school decisions. Having a job that I could do from home, I didn't have to worry about how I was going to pay my bills. But this also meant that I didn't have any more time during the week than I had pre-lockdown. So I made one loaf of bread in all of 2020 and it wasn't sourdough. I didn't re-organize my home and pare it down, Kondo-style. I didn't binge watch Tiger King (I wouldn't have done that even if I had all the time in the world). 

I still worked on my scrapbooks and knit and threw in an occasional other craft, but since stores were closed, I couldn't go to knit night, I couldn't go to the craft store, I couldn't pop out to the store when I needed that forgotten ingredient, I couldn't go see a movie.

I did sew masks. I made cards for my family.  I went camping. I went to the beach.  And I read.  I was in three book clubs last year and I'm up to five now.  My local book club met via zoom until we could meet outside with masks.  I have a FaceTime book club with my niece and nephews.  I joined a book club that only meets over Zoom. I joined a book club that discusses the selection over Instagram. And I joined a book club that discusses via real paper letters.

Why so many book clubs?  My local book club was essential to have some scheduled conversation with friends that wasn't about Covid-19. My Auntie M book club was a way to keep in touch my kiddos when I wasn't able to see them in person and to instill a love of reading in them.  I joined the Zoom book club because I was interested in the theme of the club. Then I found out about a Jane Austen book club, six novels, two months each. I signed up immediately. Instagram brought me to the fifth book club which just happened to start with Sense and Sensibility.  Of course, I needed to do that one too. Why not double-dip? 

 I wanted to read more and felt that a book club would give me the impetus to read. It worked. Reading a book chosen by others to discuss made me want to read a book I chose, too.  If I read one for the club, then I should read one for me.  I realized I had over 30 books I had purchased but hadn't read. So I gathered them all up and made two piles by my sofa. When I logged off work, I would pick one up. I finished five books the first two weeks of the new year.

So here I am at the end of March 2021 and my pile of books has gotten smaller in spite of the new books I added! I figured out my essentials are family, friends, food for my body and food for my mind. Crafting is good, too and of course, getting outside (to read a book).