In September of last year, I caught a post by Jon Acuff on Twitter describing a book that he had just finished, followed up with a link to his website for those interested in learning how to finally start reading more. Always wishing I had read more, I went to his website and quickly went through his list. It was simple, common sense stuff, that made reading more feel within my reach. What I liked most about his list was the control it gave me.  My rules and my goals.

I also knew that I shouldn’t wait until January of 2018. The desire was there and I knew if I waited that I would never start. I thought about all the times where I had wandered into a book store, bought a few books, and declared that was the moment I would be reading more.  And it never happened that way.  The books ended up being sold at a yard sale, given away, or donated to a library.

I did not have a specific goal of the number of books I wanted to read. I figured that if I had said that I wanted to read 100 books in a year and didn’t come close to that, then I would feel like I had failed. The reality is that couldn’t be further from the truth.  Had I finished 15 books, it still would have been a success because it would have been more than I read before.  My goal was just to read, to keep books handy, and to keep going and see where I landed in a year.