I just love January. I’ve bantered on about this many times, over many years, in many blog posts. And yes, I’ve made my New Year’s Resolution for this year, thank you for asking. My “resolutions” (and I don’t really call them that), more like “list of things” are pretty consistent throughout the years. I find myself cutting and pasting, tweaking, eliminating, cutting and pasting over time. In my list of things, the item that has been the absolutely most consistent is … READING. Each year, I try to read X number of books which I track through the Good Reads app (highly recommend). Good Reads has a great reading challenge where you set the number of books you intend to read for the year and you keep track of it on the app. Last year, I was so close, one off from my reading goal of fifteen books. I set the same goal again for this year and I’m already on my second book for 2026; so far, so good!
I will hit my reading goal this year and the way to do this is to set time aside to read. Simply as that. Reading fifteen books is not meant to be stressful, I’m not competitive; it’s good to have goals but I don’t get all worked up if it doesn’t work out. But it’s about making time for yourself to read the book; that’s almost the more challenging part, not the book itself but making time to do this thing for yourself. Big picture is that I want to make more time for myself and use my time more wisely, reading the fifteen books is just the end result. You catch my drift? I really love reading, I would rather read than watch something on television (and I love a good veg out session). I love getting sucked into a juicy book. However, since it’s not the most social activity and you don’t really do it with your friends and family, this means it takes mindful effort because you have to be purposeful and carve out extra time to enjoy your hobby. I love this idea of slow hobbies, some people call it "grandma hobbies", where you can do these non-device / non-digital hobbies such as knitting, crocheting, needle pointing, journaling, crosswords, soduko, etc. in order to relax and be more mindful. It’s slowing down and in a very good healthy way.
One of the ways that I plan on reading my fifteen books is by having my current read with me all the time. You would be surprised how many 10-20min snippets you have to spare throughout the day when you are in between things ( ie, during carpool, that 10 minutes while you are waiting for the clothes to dry, 15 minutes before your meeting, etc.) . Instead of doom scrolling or what not, I’m going to pull out my book and read a chapter or two. With the Notebooks & Honey tote bag, I can always have my book with me at all times, because not only is it my everyday carry all the stuff bag, but it also has a compartment for my book(s) and/or whatever slow hobby that I mentioned. It’s a tote bag with book pockets. A couple of years ago, I blogged about how the ultimate modern tote bag is a knitting bag , same concept and motivation. This tote bag for book lovers is the best way for you to have your book ( or other slow hobby ) with you all throughout the day.
Now a days I read one book at a time, but way back when when my kids were little, I alway had so many kids/picture books with me because I wanted to instill the love of reading with them from an early age and always had books on hand. Some of the kids books were so delightful and beautiful and I didn’t mind carrying them around all day, especially in my book tote bag. Fast forward to now … it was a pipe dream. Now that the kids are older, I can confidently say they like reading OKAY. To them it’s “MID”. They don’t love it, they don’t hate it. I’ll get really excited and hopeful when they find series they really like and they send me to the library to get all the books and then once they have completed the series, they seemingly forget how to read again for the next six months. If I’m lucky, they’ll pick up a book again at some point to “read for fun”. But you know what? Every time we go on a trip and I ask them (tell them, a-hem) to bring a book with them, they never complain and even are very thoughtful about which book they will bring to read-not read. It’s the thought that counts, right? If my love of reading hasn’t really passed on to them, then at least my habit of having a book around me at all times has. I’m good with that. Have a great 2026!