Hello all! After a busy few months we’re getting back into our routines, at least for a while. This year I’d like to share what I have going in my reading loop each month, partly to keep myself accountable and on track with my challenge reading, and partly to show you all how I get through these books. Basically any time reading comes up, some level of incredulity is also expressed regarding how I manage to read what I do.

I’ve never plumbed the depths of exactly HOW MUCH I think I ought to be reading, but I enjoy it and always think I couldprobably be doing more. Fiction is an easy pleasure. Nonfiction, educational reading is tougher but very satisfying.

How much time does it take?

I typically do the largest part of my heavy reading before 7:30 AM. I get up at 6, or 5 if I went to bed at a decent time and didn’t get up too much through the night. I start with my bible/bible study reading and then alternate through 4-6 other books depending on the time I have. I read at least a chapter in each book, but sometimes I read by time block too, which usually allows me to get through multiple chapters.

How do you decide what to read when?

At the beginning of each week I make a list of the books I’m working through. As I go through the week, I check off what I’ve read. My only rule is that I can’t go in for a second reading session in a book I’m really enjoying unless I’ve done one reading session in every book on the list. This has really helped me to keep making progress through all of the books on my loop list, where historically *some* books have been forgotten for months.

February Loop

So, here is my February Loop List. It changes a little through the month, as I finish books and start adding more, but most books will last through a month, if not a little longer. This is not the fastest reading–I’m trying to make a point of going slowly through these books and let the ideas steep for a while.

1. Ourselves by Charlotte Mason. *Working through this with a book club, even though I haven’t made it to an in person meeting in a couple of months. Hoping for next month, and staying caught up!
2. In Vital Harmony by Karen Glass. Education Philosophy
3. The Self-Driven Child by William Stixrud.
4. Queen of the Castle by Lynn Bowen Walker
5. Prisoner of Geography by Tim Marshall
6. Reporting World War Two, Vol. 1 by Samual Hynes
7. Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
8. The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzenitsyen
9. Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke
10. The Poetry of Robert Frost by Robert Frost
11. Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution by Richard Bernstein
12. Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card
13. How to Read Poetry Like a Professor by Thomas Foster
14. M is for Mama by Abbie Halberstadt
15. The World’s Best Loved Poems by James Gilchrist Lawson
16. Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Consistency Over Time

Reading books is a little like saving money, in my experience. Everybody thinks they can’t possibly, until they do. There isn’t a universal easy button that says how I read will definitely work for you too… but it might! I don’t have much time throughout the day that I read my own books. I read a lot of books for school to my children, and chapterbooks to them at bedtime. Sometimes I get to read a bit in the afternoon, but early mornings and late evenings are where it’s at. Also, sometimes at 3 AM while I wait for my son’s low blood sugar to come up, but I wouldn’t wish that time block on anybody haha.

I read from this loop 5 days out of a week, and might read extra in whatever is most appealing to me on the weekend. But honestly, I mainly read fiction on the weekend.

Anyways, I hope this is helpful or at least interesting. Do you have a reading routine that works for you? Let me know what it is!