**Friday Favorites**
Today’s favorites are books! 📚
But please don’t ask me to pick just one favorite … it’s like asking me to pick my favorite child. I love reading, and I books. I love to walk around in libraries and book stores looking at, touching, and flipping through the books. Something about it feels very calming to me … but also so full of possibility.
For many, many years I have tended towards non-fiction books. I like personal development, mindset and business books. I’ve avoided fiction novels for the sake of my productivity … when I get into a good book I can’t stop reading until I’m finished.
Some of my more recent favorite reads have been …
Making It Happen by Lara Casey
The 10x Rule by Grant Cardone (I preferred the audio version)
Start With Why by Simon Sinek
You are a Badass by Jen Sincero
The Fringe Hours by Jessica Turner
Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes (highly recommend the audio version, read by the author)
Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis
It became my tradition a few years ago that when I finish reading a book, I give it away. There are very few that I keep. I do have a bad habit of buying more and more books. I constantly tell myself that I’m not going to buy anymore until I finish my backlog, but that never happens. Then I end up with a massive stack … Marie Kondo would have a fit … with some that I have waited to read for so long that the moment has “passed” and it is no longer something I’m interested in. Keep an eye on the group this weekend … I’m in the process of cleaning out my bookshelves (and drawers …) at home and will be posting quite a few to give away!
If you love reading, but think you don’t have time, I have a few tips for you. First, keep a book with you at all times. You have more downtime that you think … just yesterday I waited nearly an hour at a doctor’s office! That is perfect reading time. Second, if you don’t love a book you’ve started, you don’t have to finish it. This was a lesson that took me years to learn. I felt guilty, like I had to finish a book even if I wasn’t enjoying it. All that did was make me not want to read. Now, if I start a book and am just not feeling it, I stop. I’ll either pass it along to someone else, or I may put it back on my shelf to try again another time. Third, consider only reading one book at a time. I used to have several books going at once, but I found that I struggled to get into any one of them as I was constantly bouncing between them. Lastly, try audio books. The exception to my one book at a time rule is that at any given time I am reading one “physical” book and listening to one on Audible. I have an Amazon Echo Dot in my bathroom that I use to read to me in the mornings while I am getting ready. It is a great way to use that time doing something I enjoy, and I have found that while some books I struggle to get into when I read them, I actually love to listen to them.
Do you like to read? Share your favorite book(s) with us!