Reading resolutions
I’m not a New Year’s resolutions sort of person. Why bother making them if I know I’m not going to keep them anyway? 
But I have been thinking about my reading habits the last little while, and I think I’m going to make some reading resolutions.
Most people think that librarians read a lot. Well, it’s not always true. There was an editorial by Susan Nielsen in the Oregonian recently which ended with the line “A candidate who doesn’t vote much is like a librarian who doesn’t read much. You can’t help but question the person’s true passion for the job. ” This set off a little flurry of discussion on the Libs-Or listserv, an email list for Oregon librarians.
Anyway, seeing the thread of emails on the topic reminded me that I’m one of those librarians that doesn’t read as much as I would like. That’s for all sorts of reasons. But either way, I’m resolving to get back into my previous habit of being a relatively voracious reader. (By the way, I do disagree that a librarian who doesn’t read much isn’t passionate about his/her job – I’m a case in point!)
Do you have any reading resolutions for the new year? Before we get too serious with ourselves on all those “should” reads (e.g. “I really should read War and Peace“), how about this as some encouragement?
The Reader’s Bill of Rights, by Daniel Pennac in Better than Life
- The right to not read.
- The right to skip pages.
- The right not to finish.
- The right to re-read.
- The right to read anything.
- The right to escapism.
- The right to read anywhere.
- The right to browse.
- The right to read out loud.
- The right not to defend your tastes.
Posted by Lisa, a second floor librarian
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I too rarely make New Year’s resolutions, but for the last three years, I have attempted to keep a list of the books I read each year, with just the name, author, rating, and maybe short synopsis. Each year I’ve failed by about June. This year I have resolved to do it yet again, but I am using Facebook’s visual bookshelf (or whatever it’s called) and I think this will help me to follow through all year. I forget so many of the books I read, and I would love to have a log of them.
And, I love the Reader’s Bill of Rights. Spot on.
Personally, I try to use LibraryThing to keep track of my reading. Using Facebook is a nice idea too, especially if it’s something you log into regularly anyway.
Here at the library by default we don’t keep track of what you borrow, to protect your privacy. However, if you stop by the circulation desk in the library, you can request that your library account tracks all of the items you borrow from us.
Either way, good luck with your efforts to log your reading!
- Lisa