raptureofthemoon | come and gone (Reply)

Another December, another Christmas come and gone. Another year about to begin.

I badly needed this time off.

And I badly need to keep up, not the momentum, but some of the habits I've been cultivating over the last week and a half. Which is staying off social media more often (largely not a problem, save for the wasted time I spend on Reddit) and reading more, be it in fits and spurts or in a long sitting.

I actually managed to read 10 books this year, which is more than I read last year, and probably more than I've read in a year since I graduated undergrad in 2006. Something about English degrees just royally fuck up your momentum.

I gamified my reading for the year by making it a challenge on Good Reads. (My challenge was eight books.)

Of the 10 books, at least two were "meh." One of them because it was a very easy (simple writing, fairly formulaic) popcorn read. While I have nothing against popcorn, I don't want to read popcorn just to inflate my book count for the year, just to hit a challenge goal.

I'll keep setting challenges, but I'm going to make it a point to sink my teeth into the somewhat meatier books I have on my list. Maybe I don't finish them quickly, but whatever. I just need to keep up the reading habit. I miss it when I'm not doing it.

And with those habits increased, I'm hoping they'll lead to an increase in other habits (particularly writing).

On this New Year's Even, I'm not making any big resolutions apart from building these habits and continuing the ones I've already built.

Though I am planning a project for this January, and maybe February, which will be writing a haiku a day to get back into wording.

The last two times I've done a month of haiku, I published them on my WordPress blog. This time, I might keep them for myself and see if I can do something else with them at a later date.

Happy New Year.