Winters mean moving indoors, on my couch, my nose in a book. (There’s only so much Netflix to binge at this point.) It’s no different from summer with me laid out on my new reclining chair, outdoors, letting out the occasional laugh then checking to see if my neighbours heard it. Between audiobooks, e-books, and traditional print books, I made my Goodreads challenge of 25 books in 2016. This year I upped it to 50, and it’s more about keeping a record of myself than competing against others on the site.
Challenges also tell me if my reading falls into comfort zones. I like fantasy but on occasion will dip into something reality-based. I read a lot of women but notice not a lot of women of colour. Why is this important? Books are windows into other lives in my experience. I like floor-ceiling windows, not narrow portholes. My reading habits always varied, but now I learned to not it for granted. In fact, it’s important in this day and age of curated lists on social media. Fiction often tells the truth about people, even those with put-together lives checking every box, even in moments the book started off as a means of escape.
In the early days of the blog, I used to do posts under series title ‘Book Talks.’ I enjoy working in a post-secondary library but miss those days of handselling a title or swapping titles with other people on a regular basis. If anyone has room on their TBR (To Be Read) pile, here’s a four to consider from my 2016 GoodReads Challenge list.
Unpaused Life 