For more than two years now, every Monday morning, I’ve posted a photo on my Facebook Page of the books I finished during the week, with the tag #GretchenRubinReads.
I get a big kick out of this weekly habit – it’s a way to shine a spotlight on all the terrific books that I’ve completed. It gives me the same satisfaction that I felt in grade school when we kept track of all the books we’d read on an “I’m a BookWorm” sheet.
As I write about in my book Better Than Before, for most of my life, my habit was to finish any book that I started. Finally, I realized that this approach meant that I spent time reading books that bored me, and I had less time for books that I truly enjoy. These days, I now put down a book if I don’t feel like finishing it, so I have more time to do my favorite kinds of reading.
This habit means that if you see a book included in the #GretchenRubinReads photo, you know that I liked it well enough to read to the last page.
If you’d like more ideas for habits to help you get more reading done, you can read my post here.
As an enthusiastic reader, I’m always trying to get ideas for new great books to try. For instance, I read the delightful British quarterly Slightly Foxed. Readers with the same challenge have asked me to create a list of the books I post, so that they can more easily read the titles and get ideas for books they may want to read.
So, I’m trying this out. Let me know what you think. You can also follow me on Goodreads where I’ve recently started tracking books I’ve read – however, I must confess, I’m a bit scattershot about leaving specific comments there. You’ll also see that I have very eclectic tastes!
July 2018 Reading
Ancillary Justice – Ann Leckie
Hot Milk – Deborah Levy
Johnson on Savage: The Life of Mr. Richard Savage – Richard Holmes and Samuel Johnson
Line Color Form: The Language of Art and Design – Jesse Day
The Heart’s Invisible Furies – John Boyne
Angle of Repose – Wallace Stegner
Shadows on the Rock – Willa Cather
Less – Andrew Sean Greer
The Violet Hour: Great Writers at the End – Katie Roiphe
The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User’s Manual – Ward Farnsworth
Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education – Michael Pollan
Accidental Icon: Musings of a Geriatric Starlet – Iris Apfel
Peacock and Vine: On William Morris and Mariano Fortuny – A.S. Byatt
Willa Cather on Writing: Critical Studies on Writing as an Art – Willa Cather
Maxims – La Rochefoucauld
Tuesdays at the Castle – Jessica Day George
My Summer in a Garden – Charles Dudley Warner
Searching for Caleb – Anne Tyler
A Bridge for Passing: A Meditation on Love, Loss, and Faith – Pearl S. Buck
What the Nose Knows – Avery Gilbert
Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful – Amy Stewart
From the Ground Up – Amy Stewart
The Solitary Summer – Elizabeth Von Arnim
Mr. Skeffington – Elizabeth Von Armin
Ranger’s Apprentice: The Ruins of Gorlan – John Flanagan
Back Home – Michelle Magorian
What are you reading this month?
