Reading and Resolutions

Back in 2015 I set myself a challenge to read a book a week, and exceeded my target, reading 53 books over the course of the year.  I had planned to try and do the same in 2016, but for one reason and another I was unable to read at all for many months of the year. I still kept a record of the books that I read though, and have catalogued them on Goodreads as before.  Although there were only nine of them, I did a graph of my reading patterns over the year:

This year I also included four children's books, as 2016 was the year that I introduced my son to Harry Potter, by reading them to him at bedtime.  In a year we managed to get through the first four books, but we are now having a break from them, as the fourth book was quite scary and even induced a few nightmares for the 9yo.  He absolutely loves the series, and is now Harry Potter obsessed, but agreed quite willingly to have a break, so I think he realises how scary they are for him.

Of the five books that I read myself, the one that had the most impact on me was Marie Kondo's The Magical Art of Tidying.  I have wanted to declutter for years, and had a good go a couple of years ago, but it wasn't until I read this book that I was finally able to get rid of a whole load of unnecessary stuff.  My books have now been reduced from an amount that filled two Ikea Billy bookcases, several shelves and many piles on the floor to a much more manageable number that all fit on one Billy bookcase, with space for DVDs and CDs as well.  I can now fit all of my clothes into 2 drawers and half a wardrobe, and I have even managed to reduce my photos to one shelf of albums and some picture frames.  I can't say that I live in a minimalist home, but with three children in the house under the age of 10 that isn't really going to be possible.  I have reached a point however where tidying only takes a few minutes, and feel much better about the space I live in.

As it's the New Year, I have also made two resolutions.  I'm keeping it simple this year, with a plan to read just 24 books over the year, and to finish (or discard) my various crochet and knitting projects.  I have really enjoyed learning to crochet over the last few years, and even managed to design my own crochet bunting back in 2014, but I have ended up with four projects actively on the go and one as-yet-unstarted knitted scarf promised to the 9yo. I have resolved that I will not embark on any more woolly projects until I have either finished or discarded all of these.

Book a Week 2015 - Overview

Last year, for the first time since I can remember, I made a New Year's Resolution that I actually kept.    In fact I even did better than I planned as I read 53 books in 52 weeks, a whole book more than my target.  Along the way I kept a record of the books, and some information about them, as I wanted to know whether this challenge would encourage me to read different books to the ones I would normally choose.  Also, I do love a spread sheet.

Books by genre

I've split the fiction books up into generic fiction, science fiction, fantasy and detective.  One of the greatest things about this challenge was rediscovering my love of science fiction books - as a teenager I read only science fiction for about 2 years, and I had forgotten how much I enjoy it. I have also split non-fiction into generic non-fiction and self help, using my own arbitrary category system.  I only included one children's book, although I read many, many more with the 6yo and 8yo over the course of the year. The one I included was Matt Haig's A Boy Called Christmas, partly because I read all of it (rather than it being a joint effort between the 8yo and me) and partly because I enjoyed it more than any of the other books I read with the kids last year.

Books by month

I was also interested to see if I read at the same rate through the year.  The chart below shows how many books I finished in each month. As you can see, there is a wide variation - from zero books finished in June to 12 books finished in April.  This mainly reflects the timing of my annual leave during the year, and that in January I deleted Facebook and Twitter from my phone temporarily. June was a very hectic month for various reasons and so reading went out of the window for a bit.

Books by Source

One of the things I really wanted to get out of last year's challenge was to read books that I otherwise would not have come across.  I also resolved that I would try as far as possible to read any book that I was recommended to me by a friend, even if it really didn't appeal to me. When I looked back at the source of the books I read, I was surprised to see that more than a third of them were either gifts, recommended by a friend, or inspired by people I follow on twitter or blogs I read during the year.

When I reflect on the books I enjoyed the most they were mainly from among those that had been recommended to me.

The best books

The best non-fiction book I read was The Unthinkable: Who survives when disaster strikes - and why by Amanda Ripley.  It was recommended to me by one of my friends and is an absolutely fascinating look at how people react to disasters and stressful situations.  In particular it gave me some very interesting insights into how the correct training in medicine can help doctors to overcome their natural response to stressful situations and apply basic principles to ensure they react to emergencies appropriately. 

Among the autobiographies I read, the stand-out one was Matt Haig's Reasons to Stay Alive.  I learned of its existence by following Matt Haig on twitter - so you could say it was recommended to me by the author itself.  It is a brilliant book about surviving, and living with, depression and is one of the books that I will be keeping because I know I will read it again and again.

The best fiction book (well, technically science fiction) was The Martian by Andy Weir.  I read it just after having seen the film and absolutely loved it.  It kept me up until 3am as I could not bear the idea of going to bed without having read the ending.  As is almost always the case, it was much better than the film - although I must say that I really loved the film as well. 

More than any of these books though, one of the books that I read last year changed my life.  That book was Why We Get Fat: And What to Do about It by Gary Taubes.  It was one of many books I read last year about diet, and the one that inspired me to start following a Low Carb High Fat diet. 

Next Year

For next year, I plan to try and read a book a week again, because I enjoyed it so much, but I won't put myself under pressure to do so.  I would also like to continue keeping the spread sheet, as it has been really interesting for me to go back over the year and see which books I read.

If you'd like to have a look at all the books I read in 2015, you can find the complete list on Goodreads

Fairy Tales

A couple of weeks ago I read The Woodcutter by Kate Danley. It is now up there as one of my favourite books.  I really enjoyed reading Fairy Tales as a child, so to read a book that unites many of them with a truly adult theme was a joy for me.  I particularly liked the way fairy tales from many different sources were brought together - to name but a few, it was lovely to see Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk and Baba Yaga all appear in the same story.

The book also made me reflect on the fact that, for me, one of the very best things about having children is to be able to read books to them and see them discovering for the first time some of the stories that I knew and loved when I was their age. At the moment both kids are enjoying the Kingfisher book of Fairy Tales retold by Martin Waddell, and they are currently reading Tales from Russia retold by James Mayhew.

I'm so glad I read The Woodcutter, as it has reawakened my love for Fairy Tales, and inspired me to expand the kids' collections of traditional stories.

Low Carb High Fat

As part of my Book a Week challenge I have just read 2 books about food which set off a genuine lightbulb moment, and I have now been on a low carbohydrate high fat diet for 2 weeks.


Looking back I have been moving towards this way of eating since 2013, when I read David Gillespie's book Sweet Poison. After reading it I gave up all refined sugar and fructose (including dried fruits, honey, maple syrup and the like) and I did find that my appetite reduced somewhat and that  I stopped craving sweets, biscuits and chocolate after a few weeks without sugar.  Although I did lose weight without having to do any calorie counting for the first time in my life it wasn't much (7 lb or so) and I still  found it hard to curb my appetite for carbohydrates. I then decided to have a break from the no-sugar regime at Christmas 2014, as I thought I would have enough self-control to not overeat.  It turns out I didn't - I ate an enormous amount of chocolate and junk food, and put on 6 lb in 2 weeks.


Then in January 2015 I stopped eating sugar again, but in a desperate attempt to lose weight I also went back to Weightwatchers at the same time. This plan really did not work for me - in 3 months I managed to lose the enormous amount of 2 lb, and then put it back on again.  


I have been actively trying to lose weight on and off since the  age of 16,  normally on some variation of a low-fat diet.  Along the way I have followed Rosemary Conley, Weightwatchers, Susan Powter, the Scarsdale Diet and a particularly ineffective book called Eating Less.  However none of these have resulted in me losing weight in any time of sustainable fashion, although to be fair I had the most success on Weightwatchers - but never came close to reaching my goal weight.   


Thanks to my account on the Weightwatchers website I have my weights tracked (albeit sometimes sporadically) from 2007 onwards, and I can see now that the only times I have managed to get my weight below 12 stone (168 lb) was for a short period when I was breastfeeding (11 stone 1 lb, for about 3 weeks) and when I had a viral infection which caused thyrotoxicosis (11 stone 9 lb, for about 4 weeks).  


On the day I started following this current regime I weighed 13 stone 1.4 lb (183.4 lb). Not my highest weight ever, but nevertheless way too much for my height. At 5'3" I should weigh between 8 and 10 stone to have my BMI in the healthy range.  So I have at least 3 stone (42 lb) to lose.  


"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"

Einstein

If following recommended dietary guidelines had failed to work for me for more than 20 years, then surely now was as good a time as any to try something else.  I resolved to try going low carb high fat to see what would happen.  It meant cooking different food for my partner and kids, and coping with a house full of carbohydrates, but I was determined to try for 2 weeks and then evaluate it. 


The results have astonished me.  Over the past 2 weeks I have rarely been hungry, I have eaten what seems to be a lot of food, and I have lost 7 lb in weight and 9cm from my waist.  I know this rate of weight loss will most likely not continue, but I am truly hopeful for the first time in 20 years that I may finally have the answer to my weight problem.


I have enjoyed eating avocado, roast duck (with the skin on!), full fat cheese, bacon, nuts, full fat yoghurt and the odd berry. On the down side I have also really missed bread, rice and pasta, and it was very hard not to swipe some of the kids' pizza when I cooked it for them yesterday.  


On balance this way of eating has been a lot easier than any others I have tried, principally because I have not had all-consuming hunger to deal with, nor anxiety over whether I had enough points left to be able to eat a satisfying dinner. 


As for those 2 books - they were That Sugar Book by Damon Gameau and Why we get fat by Gary Taube. I strongly recommend that you read them both, along with Sweet Poison.

Can a book make you happy?

I can't remember now what made me choose to read The Happiness Project but I'm glad I did, as it was indirectly responsible for prompting me to start this reading challenge.  I found the writing style a little irritating to start with, and I wasn't sure I would stick with it at all, but once I was used to the way Gretchen writes I really enjoyed the rest of the book.

In particular several of the observations really struck a chord with me.  One of them was the idea that people are happier once they stop trying to like things that they think they should like and embrace the activities that they do enjoy.  I used to feel guilty about reading 'chick lit' or YA fiction as I felt that I should enjoy reading classical literature and 'worthy' books.   I always felt the need to justify my choices of reading material, and felt a nagging sense of unease that I haven't ever managed to finish Lord of the Rings, or Catch 22.   However I've read both the Hunger Games trilogy and the Twilight Saga twice, and enjoyed all the books enormously.  Reading blogs like this one by Matt Haig went a long way to convincing me that I should feel free to read what I want and not feel ashamed of any of my choices, but the final nudge I needed was to reframe my reading habit as my way of relaxing.  I would never criticise anyone else's choice of book, so why was I criticising my own?

Another of the ideas in the book I really liked was that of keeping a journal which was only 1 sentence a day.  I'll admit that this mainly appealed because I had already started that very thing.  One of my Christmas presents this year was a One Line a Day Diary which I thought was a genius idea.  I have never managed to sustain a proper diary for longer than a few months, but I think I really can commit to the idea of writing one line a day. It's only been 18 days so far, but I haven't missed one yet, so I have a good feeling about it this time.

I have also started decluttering, but that process really began when I turned 40 a few months ago.  It's going very slowly so far, but I have managed to take several bags of stuff to charity and recycle a whole load of paper.  Following the impetus of this book I now also have 3 'clear areas' in the house (they are very small, just my bedside table, a dresser and a small cabinet) and my aim is to keep them clear for at least 2 weeks and then gradually start on the rest of the clutter.

I would like to try and write this blog more regularly, as I have been thinking about it more and more over the last few months, but it is difficult to find the time.  In particular, I'm not going to set myself any goals (such as 1 post a week, or 3 posts a month) - I am just going to write my ideas down as I go along and see how it goes.

If you're intrigued and want to read more about the Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin maintains a blog, which is here.

As to whether the book made me happy - actually, so far it has.  After starting to read it I stumbled upon Tara Anderson's blog about her challenge to read 52 books in a year and for the last 10 days I have been very happily reading at every available opportunity.

A book a week

I have a late entry to my resolutions for this year. Today I happened upon this blog by Tara Anderson   about her experience of reading a book a week for a year and that is what I am now planning to do for 2015. Although it's already the 8th of January I have read two and half books since Christmas, so I reason that I can count them towards my total.

Realistically I may not be able to read 1 book every single week, but I'm confident I can read 52 books during the year, especially as I have a couple of long plane journeys and a few train journeys to take at various points during the next year.

I'd like to use it as an opportunity to read different books to those I would normally read so I plan to ask my friends on Facebook and my followers on Twitter for suggestions. By happy coincidence one of my neighbours had suggested that we start a local book club this year, so that may well provide a few unusual choices too. And, like all other book lovers, I already have a pile of books at home in my "as yet unread" pile, which will set me up nicely for the first few weeks.

I'm happy to say that my family know how much I love reading and no birthday or Christmas passes by without me receiving at least 3 new books.  This year was no exception and so the first two books I read were from among my Christmas presents.  My first choice was Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie.  I have always loved Science Fiction and for many years as a teenager would read nothing else, so I was delighted to be introduced to a new Sci Fi author.  I have to say that this one did not disappoint.  I was immediately transported to the world of the Radchaai and literally could not put this book down.  I particularly loved the way the book deals with the gender of characters, and enjoyed reading about the burgeoning relationship between Breq and Seivarden. Having finished it I immediately started on the sequel (Ancillary Sword).  As often happens, I did not find the second book quite as good, but it was still completely unputdownable, and I'm delighted to learn that there will be a third book in the series published in due course.

The book I'm reading this week is The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.

I am genuinely excited about this new resolution, and hopeful that it will expand my horizons. I also suspect it will help me to kickstart this blog again as well, as I will no doubt want to share my thoughts on each new book.