Reading Gratitude Journal
2026: A year of reading only personal recommendations
In 2025, I wandered the stacks
I mean that literally.
I didn’t have a map or a plan. I meandered.
Most of the books I read were plucked up from the displays at Spring Green Community Library. I also moseyed into a couple of book stores and grabbed titles that caught my attention.
(This is actually Frank Lloyd Wright’s library at Taliesin.)
I didn’t love what I read
Without a plan or purpose, and without doing any research, I ended up reading a few duds.
I won’t name names. They weren’t bad books, but they were not the right books for me. I left them wondering, “what was that all for?”
Life is too short & I read too slowly to spend time on duds
I’m not a speed reader. If I live 50 more years (who knows?) and read 20 books per year (a generous estimate), I can read 1000 more books in my lifetime.
I hardly want to “waste” any of those reads.
For the record, I do believe in quitting books - setting a book aside if you’ve given it a chance and decided it’s not for you. I think that’s really healthy. In theory. In practice, I find it pretty hard to let go of an unfinished book. But I digress.
So in 2026, I’m only reading personal recommendations
This year, I’m committed to read only books that have been personally recommended to me, including books that my friends have written.
If I can only read 1000 more books, I’d like to make them count.
What makes a book count? I have a few ideas about that…
Reading for the moment
Who added all these books to my “To Read” list? I don’t remember her, I hardly know her.
This line from Marie Kondō’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, has always stuck with me:
If you missed your chance to read a particular book, even if it was recommended to you or is one you have been intending to read for ages, this is your chance to let it go. You may have wanted to read it when you bought it, but if you haven’t read it by now, the book’s purpose was to teach you that you didn’t need it.
So I’m going to pull away from my “To Read” list and focus on books that strike me now, at this moment.
Reading to connect
But if you remember, reading based on my whims is also what got me wandering into the book wasteland. So I will also prioritize reading to connect. That might mean…
Reading the new hit title to be a part of the bookish culture
Reading a friend’s recommendation so that we can talk about it together
Reading a new project written by a friend so that I can support their creativity
Overall I want to focus on books that have personal ties - books that will allow me to connect deeply with the people in my life.
Reading to celebrate writers
I can be overly critical of books that I encounter. I’m too harsh, too wrapped up in what I would do differently. Too jealous & afraid that I might not be up to snuff as a writer myself.
Fine. But that perspective can really suck the joy out of a good story.
This year, I plan to write about my reading…by saying only good things.
I want to reprogram my brain back to the factory setting, when I used to read for pure pleasure and relish the characters, the settings, the plot twists (even if I saw it coming), the words on the page.
Consider this my gratitude journal for books.
