My Year of Reading

After the rush of Christmas and all things festive to ring out 2017, I took the first two weeks of 2018 as a time to reflect, observe and feel out the pace of this very momentous year.

I am being patient with myself and also mindful of the excitement that these first weeks bring.

After all they are loaded with so much care, so much anticipation and hope. But I am aware that we have 12 months so I need to make my steps strategic

That said, during this time, I made some very interesting observations, some new and others, necessary reminders.

Here they are:

1. Keep a “To-Don’t” List
2. Don’t fight over things that are behind you
3. Perfection a.k.a. procrastination is the enemy of progress
4. Life comes at you quick
5. Life is fragile
6. You’re only a single decision away from changing your life forever, at any given moment

While doing all this ‘observing’, I realized that with all the excitement of 2017, I hadn’t taken a proper vacation!

It was an exciting year for me: got a mini promotion, then a mega promotion all while starting this blog, being voted my club’s Toastmaster of the year and becoming an adjunct lecturer at my alma mater.

But all that means nothing if I’m not taking enough time for self-care. Therefore I am making an effort to schedule and take my hold-over vacation days. This means more time for one of my favourite things to do, reading!

Reading Maketh the Man

I’m declaring this the year of reading because I really will be reading a lot more than usual. I currently have a bevy of books on my list and I plan to read as many as I can.

My love of historic and contemporary literature, means that I am trying to balance between the works of Marlon James and Yaa Gyasi as well as historical non-fiction, and some notable self help books.

Reading is important to me because I believe that being able to get lost in a book is always a good thing. I don’t discriminate either.

Many people feel that reading self empowerment books are all we need to make our lives better. Who doesn’t want to learn how to win Friends and influence people or the Power of Intention?

I too would love the benefits of these deep, thought provoking meditations on how to live a better life and be a fully self actualized person. But I also think it’s beneficial to enjoy the stories, real or imagined, that fill our lives and allows us all to think.

One of the most interesting books I read in 2017 came quite by surprise (Thank you Amazon). I happened upon this book while scrolling through twitter, via an article.

The article chronicled the story of Gail Lukasik who discovered that her mother was actually part black but chose to pass for white and abandoned her African-American origins.

She wrote about her experience and her journey to discovering a whole new family in a book titled White Like Her: My Family’s Story of Race and Racial Passing.

I learned so much reading that book and it was an immense pleasure, because it touched on topics I am very fond of – history, family and race, especially the idea of passing.

Equally interesting was Kei Miller’s August Town, which was such a rich story set in Jamaica and filled with history.

Balance.

2018 is exciting! I have some interesting things planned for the blog in terms of content.

I’m ready!

Be inspired, Be informed, Be Glorious!

Kevin

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