My Reading Challenge for 2022

 This is further to my personal challenges for 2022 and more detailed, I guess. I need somewhere to keep my list too so here we are.

I'm aiming for 12 books this year, but I'm not 100% sure what yet. Book club is still in existence, but at a stalemate right now. I may have bitten off more than I could chew with creating a reading challenge and having set reads each month. 

I have the same goal with reading this year. My books will be a combination of pure enjoyment, personal growth, and therapy. I cleaned out my shelves last year and donated 134 books. In conjunction with my reading challenge I will be making sure I don't add books to my shelves unless I have read and enjoyed, or will read within the next two months. If I don't thoroughly enjoy the book, or love it, I will be donating it.

There's definitely no need for me to collect books anymore! 

Here's my reading list for 2022

• The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl (so excited to read this one)
• Seeds of Earth by Michael Cobley (this is a maybe as it's the first space opera I'm attempting to read in years)

Stay tuned for more updates 💗

Normal People by Sally Rooney

 Trigger Warning Note: Before I comment on this novel I want to make others aware of a possible trigger. I realised it was a trigger for me as lately I've been responding to triggers with overwhelming sadness. Halfway through the book there was an interaction between the main characters which made me want to cry. This, for me, is a large trigger response and I realised there were a few triggers earlier on. I read a sentence which made me question whether one of the characters was abused as a child and I want readers to be aware if you are also an adult survivor of child abuse. It's not a detailed account and the triggers earlier on in the story are more subtle, but they are still there.

At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He’s popular and well-adjusted, star of the school soccer team while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her housekeeping job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers - one they are determined to conceal.

A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.

Just My Thoughts

Catching Up

I've been distracted lately. Or maybe the right term is busy. In a good way, mostly. 

My back has decided sitting at the dining table to type is not cool. I'm doing physio three times a week and a bunch of exercises three times a day. It's kinda made me not want to type or blog, but today I am taking over my partner's desk as she is in the office. I felt inspired.

I finished a great psychology book, Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson, and began a new one, Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey. It's a big deal for me after the anhedonia and depression. I realised the other day I had begun a trilogy in January 2020, made it to the sequel, only to lose reading momentum at page 378. 378! That's some effort and yet apparently not enough for me lol. So, yeah, big deal for me.

I've officially started a book club. We're getting things underway, have chosen our first book, and have set the date for our first meet up. I had a book club years ago which I ran for two years. Unfortunately I was so triggered at the time, and unaware of it, that book club wasn't a fun experience for me. This time will be different and I'm quite excited.

My Reading Challenge for 2021

I'm giving myself a reading challenge this year! I used to be very big into them, as well as reading, but have set the bar low this year. I want to make it a joy to read rather than add pressure and overwhelm myself with stress. I'm giving myself permission to alter the goal and forgiveness if I don't finish it. This is something I have learnt during trauma therapy and having PTSD. It's great to set goals, or a challenge for instance, but not to the point of becoming obsessed and being overwhelmed. With my OCD I also get very preoccupied with lists and numbers so this works as a two-fold.... three-fold... maybe more folds... challenge for myself. I'll post about challenges next week. Challenges are important in combating things like OCD and repetitive behaviours.

My goal is to read a combination of pure entertainment books and books for personal growth and therapy. When it comes down to it all books will be read not out of obligation, but because I want to read them.

Challenge Totals: 22
Pure Entertainment: 11
Growth and Therapy: 11

So far I have some planned reading, but I'm keeping the planned numbers low. It helps I'm also creating a book club as motivation, inspiration, and socialisation! 

Hello?

Hmm, the first post. I used to love the first post on a new blog. I used to love blogging. I used to blog so much I have neglected blogs on several different platforms gathering cyber dust.

The thing is, I want to blog again, but I have this issue... I forget the name of the condition, but it's one of those things usually associated with PTSD, Anxiety, and Depression. I have all three and OCD which, after years, led to me realising I struggled to feel enjoyment with past hobbies. I kept saying I liked or loved something, but I wasn't really feeling it.

When I figure out the name of the condition, again, I will blog about it.

So after no blogging for years I decided to start back up again.