January 8, 2015

paper + ink club

 at the start of 2014, i resolved to read more, zone less.... and by 'zone' i mean stare blankly at my phone as i scroll through feeds of photos. i like keeping up with friends and the people i follow on social media, but it was out of control in 2013, and i found that i only read two books the entire year... TWO!! i'm a reader, so for me, that's unacceptable... i nearly felt my brain turn to mush like the blob people in wall-e when i realized the lack of reading time. bleh.

rather than setting a specific goal like 'i want to read a book a month...' i just set out to slowly change my habits one decision at a time - instead of grabbing my phone, i'd grab a book instead. it's crazy and encouraging to see the difference that little switch made last year. i read eleven and a half books [sorry coco chanel, i lost interest halfway thru. oops. not pictured: c.s. lewis biography and amy poehler's 'yes please'] and listened to one audiobook [mindy kaling's 'is everyone hanging out without me?'].

i tried to mix it up between fiction and non fiction, spiritual and secular, young adult and adult. i think my favorite book from the year was 'walking on water: reflections on faith and art' by madeleine l'engle. oh. my. gosh. the woman is a genius but it's not so heady that you have to reread every paragraph just to understand what she's saying. i think her view on faith and art and mixing the two is profound and inspiring. i'd say it's a great read for anyone, but a must read for artists.

this year, i plan on doing the same thing - read more, zone less... so i'm kicking off the year with creativity inc. by ed catmull and the last battle by c.s. lewis. good ol' clive staples is always on my reading list.

what are you guys reading? i'd love to hear what your favorite books are or what you'd recommend! happy reading!

p.s. i feel a sense of responsibility for listing these books and somewhat promoting them... so i have to add a disclaimer to say that i really can't recommend amy poehler's book to you guys... she has a lot of great things to say, a lot of personal and inspiring things to say, but there's a lot of adult content and language in there too... so i don't personally recommend it.

4 comments:

  1. oh, i'm so going to have to add "walking on water" to my list for this year. this past year i read a total of 54 and a half (ha, it took me an extra two days in january to finish the last one) books and i was so so close to my goal of 60, but you know, i'm happy i got as far as i did. i actually just posted about my favorite books from this year on my blog, so yeah, instead of listing a huge pile of them, i'll just let you read them here haha.

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    1. yes! you must!! it's such an amazing book! and oh. my. gosh. 54 books?!?!?! how?!?! i'm completely in awe of your accomplishment! well done! i'll definitely check out your list! thanks for sharing!! xo!

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  2. Last month I read The Reason by Lacey Sturm. I wasn't familiar with Lacey Sturm or Flyleaf, but Cathe Laurie recommended the book and I respect Cathe Laurie. It's an interesting spiritual memoir with charming drawings by Jordan Clarke. The way that God can turn someone's life around amazes me.

    I just started reading Where the Wind Leads by Vinh Chung. It's the true story of a refugee from South Vietnam who went on to graduate from Harvard. I love it so far.

    I read The Giver last year too!

    Kirstin

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    1. thank you for the recommendations, kirstin!! i haven't heard of either book, so i'm excited to check them out!! xo! ash

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