Read more books

I want to read more books for entertainment instead of watching TV or messing around online. I almost feel like I have an aversion to books because for so long I was only reading them for school.

I think that instead of reading fictional books or books for entertainment I will read books to educate myself. Then I will write about those books under my other goals.

I am doing well with this goal. I read Roots that is 688 pages and the longest book I have ever read! I spent hours reading other books too instead of just watching tv all the time. I have access to the university library and as a graduate student, I can take out books for an entire semester. I will read to enrich and improve myself.

I no longer want to read the Time Magazine top 100 books. Instead, I will read books about black history so this will count for my goal of learning about black history. I will also read more books about psychology and buddhism. All of my reading will have to do with making me a better and more informed person. This reading will help me for the rest of my life. I think it will be more valuable than reading storybooks. The first book I will read is Roots by Alex Haley.

I am reading a relationship book called “Are you the one for me? Knowing who’s right & avoiding who’s wrong” by Barbara Se Angelis, Ph.D. I hope that this will help me out. I am still reading the Assertiveness Workbook. I have read so many books this summer!

I finished reading Houskeeping by Marylynne Robinson. I don’t know what it is but, I don’t think I’m enjoying these books very much. I think all the years of schooling and learning how to write correctly have had a major effect on me. With the recent books I have read, I just kept thinking “Thats a run on sentence” or, “There should be more paragraphs because they topic has changed”. I keep on thinking about grammar and structure. Before and during graduate school I had to learn so many rules about writing. The goal was to write as clearly as possible and to not really be creative. I think that this has made it difficult for me to enjoy books that are written with creative use of grammar rules.
I also kept waiting for ‘the twist’. I think that I am so accustomed to watching films where incredible things happen that you don’t see coming, that I expected it with the books. It seemed that in the books they described ordinary things vividly, but that doesn’t make the events any less mundane. I need more excitement, and maybe that was not one of the priorities of the people who made the Time Magazine top 100 novels list. Its good to know the classics and everything, but I don’t feel that the last two really changed my life or anything.
Well, my next book is ‘A Passage to India’ by E.M. Forster.

So I finished my second book since starting this goal :Wide Sargasso Sea. Now I am starting to read an Assertiveness workbook. I will use the handouts and activities with clients so I am reviewing the book first. Plus I can learn to be more assertive. That’s killing two birds with one stone (sorry animal lovers…its just an expression).

I have finished my first book since starting this goal ‘The Color Purple’ by Alice Walker. It has changed me. I am more interested now in my history and culture. I have already started my next book, ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’ by Jean Rhys and I should be finished quite soon.

I finished reading ‘Make Your Mind Work for You”. Great book! I will keep it on my desk because I’m sure I’ll have to look up the tips again. If helped to put a lot of things in perspective. I highly recommend it.

I signed out a book from the library about how to write a dissertation from start to finish. I have already read the first 6 chapters. I feel a bit vindicated because I was already doing a lot of the things that the book advised. That means I had already learned enough to do most things myself but the book is giving me even more structure. Its making me believe more in my own competence. There are LOTS of books like this out there for any of you who are writing theses or dissertations.