Refreshing start to the New Year

With how i’m just going to focus on mood reading and reading what I want when I want and no longer doing the Goodreads challenge I decided to start off the year with intentionally not reading anything for the first day of the new year. Kinda like intention setting. I played Sims 2 all day and had a blast! I got some sims through University, which always takes so long.

It is so refreshing (for me personally – if you want to do it, go for it and good luck!) to not have to worry about anything in regards to a Goodreads challenge (anymore, though it worked for me for awhile as I mentioned before) or any books I said i’d get to in either a TBR or a POP. Even though POPs were looser I was still treating them like a TBR, just one I knew I wouldn’t get through all the books and had a tiny bit of freedom with.

Speaking of POPs, I know what my problem was. Sharing it. If I share any TBR or POP etc, I’ve then set the expectation i’ll get to those books, or at least do the best I can. It’s like a promise even though it isn’t and I can’t break a promise. I was frustrating myself without realizing it.

Now i’ve been writing down books that call to me, that catch my eye, that I wanna get to etc. just so when i’m ready to read I can see if any of those still catch my eye, so I can remember. But i’m no longer sharing them and i’m not treating them as monthly things anymore. It’s for however long said mood lasts. Before I pick up a book I must ask myself, do I feel like reading this right now? If the answer is no, I won’t pick it up then.

If for some reason I look at my private temporary POP and think “I don’t wanna read any of these books right now, but I wanna read something” well, at least i’ve crossed some books off the list and am that much closer to figuring out what I do want to read.

So, now it’s the 3rd day of the year. Have I picked anything up yet? Yup! I still really want to read a bunch of things! I’ve started The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, which is the sequel to The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs which I read last year and it made it onto my favorites of the year!

I’m not too far in yet but so far i’m enjoying it just as much as The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs!

Have you picked up anything yet? If so, what? How is your New Year starting off?

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