I recently posted my 4ty-5 by 45 challenge list, with the next set of goals I’d like to accomplish by the next big birthday. Although, to be fair, every birthday should be celebrated as a big birthday. It’s a privilege and an accomplishment to make it to each year, and should be heralded as such, but that TED talk is for another day when I have a good can of frosting to power me through. 

One of my goals is to read over 100 books every year, which I’ve done consistently for the last few years already. A good friend of mine texted me and said “HOW do you DO that?” And the answer is simple – I haven’t lived with a TV for the last ten years, and even though I have a Netflix account, it just doesn’t keep me interested unless it’s REALLY good. I do like to fall asleep to Disney cartoon classics when I come home tipsy from a night out, full of friend love and nostalgia, and pop in my mouthguard and get through like ten minutes of “Robin Hood.”  but I don’t have a partner, a pet, or kids. My only hobby is staying alive and in relative shape, and round is a shape – I’m already there, so I don’t have to work hard on that, so I read a LOT. 

  I read for my book club, which chooses an underrepresented community each month, I read Victorian historical fiction and speak in a British accent in my head for most of it, I read about fairies and about dragons and about witches and vampires, I read about meet cutes, about girls and women facing X in Y country and when I finish I find a website and say “take my money.” 

I read to learn, I read to escape, I read to feel everything for myself and sometimes everything for others and sometimes to feel nothing at all. 

Growing up, one grandma was a first grade teacher, one was a librarian, so I think I had an advantage this way. The smell of books is comforting, is easy, is familiar. Even at forty years old, I lie to myself with “just one more page” but it turns into a chapter, turns into the end of the book, turns into 2am and I’m still awake and downloading everything the author has ever written and writing her fan mail because thank you for bringing me joy for a few hours. 

My Kindle tells me “6 hours and 18 minutes” until I finish and when I can tick “mark as finished” in 5 hours and something, I feel like I deserve a little treat (chips and chocolate and then another book! Maybe an hour on booktok picking the next one out!).

When he’s about to tell her how much he loves her, how he rues the day they met, but he’d trade all his fortune for one more day together, disown his family name for her kiss, I have to cover the paragraphs with my hand so I don’t skip ahead. I read it again. I walk around my tiny flat reading it out loud and practice my face expressions like it’s a declaration for me. 

When the main character realizes the power was in her all along, that even though she’s a 20-something orphan with newly discovered magical abilities, and illiterate, and lacking basic manners, and wants to wear leathers instead of a dress except for that one special ball, she is the fated queen of the entire universe and magical creatures hundreds of years old will fight to the death over just the smell of her hair, I squeal and giggle and pretend it’s about me. 

And have you ever had a line of poetry just make you go horizontal? Make your heart ache? Render you speechless? 

Do you have a favorite book you could read over and over forever? What’s a book that’s changed your life? That you still think about on the regular? I have a lot – Anne of Green Gables series, Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew, all of Jane Austen, The Potato Factory, The Bell Jar, all of John Steinbeck and Daphne du Maurier and Edith Wharton and Margaret Atwood and David Sedaris. Bryson, Michener, Harriot, Wilde, Marshall, Bronte, Adams, Marquez, Walker, Follett, Coelho, Gladwell, Lewis, Montgomery, Alcott. 

Then there are the books someone recommended, so when I think of the book, I think of them. – “You read this beautiful thing, and you thought of me?!” IS there a better, warmer feeling on the planet?! I submit that there is not. 

And the books that made me travel to a certain place. The books that helped me understand people better. The books that helped me understand myself. 

So, here’s what you do to read over 100 books a year – get rid of all responsibilities. Use up all your sick days. Load up your Kindle before any vacation. Eschew all films and television on flights, in the evenings, just don’t touch that screen. Also, it’s best to give away any husbands/wives/children/pets that may demand time from you. I find it’s an advantage to be beholden only to myself. If this is not in fact an option for you, I find many friends enjoy audio books as well. 

Now – make a book nook. This kind of sport requires a proper space. Prepare your comfy chair, your pillows to support your arms at optimal position, your blanket. Prep the kettle, collect the tea bags, select the best mug. Light the special candle. Uniform time! You must take off your bra, slide on some sweats, kick your feet up, collect a furry creature as a lap warmer if you have one available. 

Now. Now you are ready. This is prime time! Throw your phone to the other side of the room and ride that reading rainbow. Take a look – it’s in a book – a reading rainbow – a reading Rainbow!

if you do need a book . . . might I recommend my own?!