This month’s challenge was to take time every day to read for pleasure. I recognize that to some it might seem silly having this as a challenge. I love to read, and one would think that because I love to read that I do it often. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

My job makes it incredibly difficult to read for my pure enjoyment. I read so much for work and by the time I get home, I’m pretty tired; my eyes are tired; it’s a mess. Reading for pleasure gets put on the back burner during the school year, and I can go months without reading anything for the pure joy of it. I spend the summer cramming in as many books as possible. Since these challenges are about balance and enriching my life- I wanted to make a real effort to bring this personal love back into my life in a more consistent way. So, I did.

I would love to say that this has been the easiest challenge so far, but honestly it wasn’t. As I mentioned, my days are mentally exhausting, and I come home pretty worn out a lot of the time. The last thing I feel like doing on a lot of those days is read more. But that’s why it’s called a challenge, right? I embraced it and made myself sit down every evening at some point and read as much as I was able. In the 30 days of this challenge, I have read 3 books and have started my 4th (all the books I read that I would recommend are in the Recent Reads section of my site). That is an incredibly slow pace for me when I’m in a normal routine of reading, like during the summer, but I feel really good about that during the school year. I also think December was the right month for it since I did have a little more time off from work in the last week to focus on it.

Overall, it’s been really good. I’m glad I did it and will work on keeping at it. I’ll be teaching new courses this semester that require a lot of studying and prep which will make that harder, but I’m going to try. I can’t describe how it feels to sit down with a good book. The way it feels when you finish a beautiful story that you’ve been immersed in for however long it took. Sometimes it’s a wave of sadness that rolls over you when it’s over and wondering what journey you’ll take next. I have been a reader my entire life. I love getting lost in the stories. It adds so much more depth to my life, regardless of what it is. I know it makes me better. I don’t want to lose that. So, as I embark on the next 30-day challenge, this is one I will work to keep up on.