So I think there's a chance I don't finish Les Miserables in time to complete my own challenge! If I do finish (which I'd really like to...), I certainly won't be on time with any posts along the way. I'm loving the book, but I've gotten pretty behind in the past couple of months. I decided I need to give myself permission to just do my best and let the chips fall where they're going to fall.
I remember the couple of weeks before Christmas last year. I had a beautiful hardcover for both my mother and myself (it was part of her Christmas gift). I had made little bookmarks for each week of the year delineating where we needed to be in order to be "on time". The little bookmarks were made from some beautiful scrapbook paper I bought - and they were seasonal, so September's dates were written on yellow harvesty paper, and December's dates on snowflake paper. Little did I know, at that very moment, I was carrying around a poppyseed sized life-changer that would end up being the most precious little boy I've ever seen (I'm slightly biased...).
So the situation is this. I have lots of time to read these days because I'm breastfeeding. (Yay!) The downside is that books are just too bulky to make it work, so it's all getting done on my Kindle. The translation of Les Mis I'm reading isn't available on Kindle. (Boo!) So, I'm doing what works. I'm enjoying some great literary fiction and just having fun with it. It's actually been kind of liberating to just get in there and choose titles from my wishlist. I'm staying away from anything too heavy because it's hard to focus in that way when you're running on 2 hours of sleep and it's 3am. Oh, bonus? There's a site I found - NH Downloadable Books - where there are Kindle versions of many books available to download for free. All you need is a NH library card!
Another point...
There are times when the little guy is sleeping, the house is clean, the laundry is in order, and I actually sit down. They say "sleep when the baby sleeps", but I have a hard time doing that. I'm not a napper. Typically I wake up from a nap feeling worse. So I get to... you guessed it... read! I'm using the opportunity of having two available hands to read some physical books, and it seems like this is the perfect time to tackle Les Mis. Sometimes it is. Other times it's not. I'm too tired, I can't focus. I like the book and I don't want it to feel like a chore, so I'm granting myself permission and grabbing something else from my shelf. I have three ARCs that need to be dealt with, so that's what I'm doing.
Isn't it funny how we feel the need to give ourselves permission to do things? No one is holding me responsible to what I read except for me. I've always maintained that this blog is simply for fun. I'm not going to schedule out my reading time, or get down on myself when I realize I have not completed a book in a couple of months. This is a public journal - some of it personal, most of it bookish. If it's not fun then I'm doing something wrong.
So there you go. The short version is that when it comes to Les Mis, I'll get to it when I get to it and not feel bad either way. I will be posting avenues through which people can link up their posts if they wish.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend!
I remember the couple of weeks before Christmas last year. I had a beautiful hardcover for both my mother and myself (it was part of her Christmas gift). I had made little bookmarks for each week of the year delineating where we needed to be in order to be "on time". The little bookmarks were made from some beautiful scrapbook paper I bought - and they were seasonal, so September's dates were written on yellow harvesty paper, and December's dates on snowflake paper. Little did I know, at that very moment, I was carrying around a poppyseed sized life-changer that would end up being the most precious little boy I've ever seen (I'm slightly biased...).
So the situation is this. I have lots of time to read these days because I'm breastfeeding. (Yay!) The downside is that books are just too bulky to make it work, so it's all getting done on my Kindle. The translation of Les Mis I'm reading isn't available on Kindle. (Boo!) So, I'm doing what works. I'm enjoying some great literary fiction and just having fun with it. It's actually been kind of liberating to just get in there and choose titles from my wishlist. I'm staying away from anything too heavy because it's hard to focus in that way when you're running on 2 hours of sleep and it's 3am. Oh, bonus? There's a site I found - NH Downloadable Books - where there are Kindle versions of many books available to download for free. All you need is a NH library card!
Another point...
There are times when the little guy is sleeping, the house is clean, the laundry is in order, and I actually sit down. They say "sleep when the baby sleeps", but I have a hard time doing that. I'm not a napper. Typically I wake up from a nap feeling worse. So I get to... you guessed it... read! I'm using the opportunity of having two available hands to read some physical books, and it seems like this is the perfect time to tackle Les Mis. Sometimes it is. Other times it's not. I'm too tired, I can't focus. I like the book and I don't want it to feel like a chore, so I'm granting myself permission and grabbing something else from my shelf. I have three ARCs that need to be dealt with, so that's what I'm doing.
Isn't it funny how we feel the need to give ourselves permission to do things? No one is holding me responsible to what I read except for me. I've always maintained that this blog is simply for fun. I'm not going to schedule out my reading time, or get down on myself when I realize I have not completed a book in a couple of months. This is a public journal - some of it personal, most of it bookish. If it's not fun then I'm doing something wrong.
So there you go. The short version is that when it comes to Les Mis, I'll get to it when I get to it and not feel bad either way. I will be posting avenues through which people can link up their posts if they wish.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend!
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