C.S, Lewis said that.. or, maybe it was just his character in Shadowlands that said it but either way – someone said it and I like it. I actually first saw this posted on the sidewalk sign in front of my friend Ben’s bookstore in Downtown Edmond but that isn’t really what this post is about..
At the end of 2022, I was feeling drained and just plain exhausted. I found myself looking at my phone more and more per day and had that “fed up” moment with myself. In fact, it might have been a time when I got frustrated with my 12 year old for spending 99% of our 3 day a week drive back and forth to Tulsa staring at the screen of his phone….. The same damn thing I did everyday, too. I was done with it and by the end of December, I was done with Social Media…
No Instagram.
No Facebook.
No Strava.
I was (and still am) so tired of all that social media means and stands for today and knew it was time for me to break it off. Break up. Be done with it all so that I could fill that time and brain power with something that felt better to me. Made me more happy.
Some of this should probably be more walking, running and riding but some of it was simple: be quiet and read more.
That’s it.
Pick up the pages and see what adventures I can find myself on and what I can learn along the way. In 2023, I am going to read more. I’m not going to put a number on the list but commit, here, to always have a book open and one or two coming up.
So far, I have read 4 books and have two opened currently.
I have also cut my phone usage time by something like 2.5 hours per day (holy shit that’s a lot of phone time).
Anxiety has been reduced.
Really, it has been so rewarding and I honestly don’t miss anything I gave up in the least.
Side Note: Why is it not strange at all for someone to be looking at their phone in a meeting, over coffee with friends or while having a direct conversation but if I replace “phone” with “book” it gets all sorts of weird??
Anyway – I’m rambling………
I have a new page (check it out above) called Reading List. On it, I will share books I’ve read.. what I’m reading.. what is on the table for later.. and hopefully books that you send to me.
As you will surely notice, I read in themes with mostly non-fiction (sorry – it’s how I like my movies, TV and books.. Just how it is. Have suggestions for me? Shoot me an email! Yes – I’ll entertain fiction but please don’t send me Starwars or that Harry guy. Please.
Also – your suggestions will keep me from just starting down the list of 13 Bourdain books that I can find at my local library. I’m going to read all of those no matter what this year BUT at least I could be convinced to weave them into a more comprehensive list of great reads.
Shoot me your books. Leave me a comment on the Reading List page or here or wherever (just not a facebook message or dm please – ha). I need more and more.
I still have a lot of personal things to work through but I can say that reading has been such a great outlet so far this year.