What I am Reading (1) & the 17 minute Movement|April 11, 2018

Hey Bibliomanics,

This week I bring to you my currently reading. Honestly, I have been in a funk lately. I feel like I read a lot of everything and finished nearly nothing in 2018.

One of my friends (Shout out to you Patrick)  has been doing a series on his facebook which I am going to refer to as the “daily 17”.  I was seeing posts of him with books, different books every few days, so being the curious book nerd that I am  I had to ask him what was he doing. So, he sent me a picture which I will share with you below:

Are you slightly mind blown, because I kind of was.

I know several people in my life that have not cracked a book open this year alone. Yet, by this static, if you read for just 17 minutes a day you can be finishing 2 books a month.

So, because I refer to the image above as the static, I had to find out for myself what this meant, what is the research behind this. I stumbled on a post that was made by www.renaissance.com. ( Click the link to be taken to the post that is being referred too.) In summary, the post talked about how 15 minutes a day of reading can benefit the lives of students.  Something that hurt my heart so terribly was that 54% of students read less than 15 minutes a day. That breaks down to 1 in 5 students reading (Renaissance). That is just SAD!!!! No sugar coating there.  That means there is one 1 person among every 5 that get to visit outside worlds and become friends with different characters. In my opinion, you are missing out.  The article series goes on to talk about the correlation between reading  15-17 minutes a day vs. the achievement students have in school (Renaissance).

I also looked at another website  called humanities indicator, which compared time spent reading, vs watching tv, vs. playing video games, the statics it provided is that reading amount increases by age, the older you are the more you read (Humanities indicator).

I noticed while I was leisurely browsing through the statics, it seems that the amount of time that youth/ young adults read is decreasing. Which, to me is no surprise because I encounter people who haven’t read a book in years in my daily life.

But, with that said I want to inspire you to take just 17 minutes crack open a book and see if you can find for yourself the magic that I love so dearly.  I am sure you have 17 minutes in your day where you are just lounging around, or before bed. If reading seems to be tough, try an audiobook.

But, now that you know the 17-minute rule let me tell you what books I am reading in my 17 minutes.

Currently, I am in between 4 books…. ( You can view the Goodreads links if you click on the title) 

Gone with the Wind: This book is a brick. I picked it up after finishing “Great Gatsby” which put me into a huge reading slump. This is a story about a girl named Scarlett who finds herself living in poverty after the “Sherman’s March. This is her account of how she tries to climb out of it. Honestly, this book will probably take me forever to read because I am literally only getting through 5-10 pages a reading. Not that the book isn’t interesting I just find that the subject matter and writing style are a bit harder to read. I honestly just plan to take my time with this book but continue to dedicate my 17 minutes to it.

Frost Bite: Honestly, I didn’t think that I was going
to go back to the “Vampire Academy” series. But, I wanted a fluffy read and this is right up my ally. This follows our main character Rose, who is being trained to be a Vampire’s bodyguard. Amongst, the vampires, students and teachers, there are the bad vampires lurking in the dark called the “Stigori”, who decide to attack the academy and kidnap three students. It is up to Rose to rescue them. These books are purely guilty pleasure reads. But, I enjoy them none the less.

 

 

 

Stalking Jack the Ripper: I am listening to this on audio. I tried reading this book before and I had a hard time getting into. But, let me tell you the audio book is excellent. This is about a girl, who likes to shadow her uncle in the morgue. Then all of a sudden the famous killer Jack the Ripper starts to target the lower class women of London, and who better to help find him than, Audrey Rose

 

 

Daring Greatly by Brené Brown: This is my self- development book. I am a member of Beachbody, which is the organization that brings you “Insanity” and “P-90x”. When you join as a member you get a coach which adds you into a Facebook group that keeps you motivated and on track. My coach recommends doing a little of personal development every single day. This is the book I chose to read. Actually, the book found me. This book is all about vulnerability and playing big in your life. I am so impressed by how this book is written, my copy has a million highlighted quotes and lots of notes in the margins.

Now the real question is what are you reading this week? Are you going to spend 17 minutes of your day reading?

With Warm Cups of Tea and just a few more chapters,

Rina