There is a funny contradiction at our house. We own a TON of books. Boxes and boxes.
Steve & I are both readers and have collected our favorites over the years. Plus we've pass this "collecting" on to our children.
Each birthday and Christmas we’ve given the kids books. Now if they have extra money they purchase their own books. We also go to the library weekly and so each person has a pile that they are working on reading.
Plus the many shelves of books required for homeschooling. Like 12 years of books
Like I said a TON of books.
Going Electronic for books
But I’ve switched away from reading physical books to reading on my iPad. And I LOVE it.
Now don’t get me wrong. I still like real paper books. There is just something about seeing them on a shelf and the library is seriously my happy place. But I do NOT like having to pack books around.
My iPad is an all-in-one thing. Books, internet, email, games, Pinterest etc.
Plus I can adjust the size of the print. Ummhmm yes my 44 year old eyes appreciate that.
A lot
Plus on the nights where I wake up and can’t go back to sleep, I can read in the dark with the brightness turned WAY down. I feel less like I’m keeping hubby awake. Last month I detailed some of my new reading habits. One of them is that I read in bed before I get up. If feels lazy but it helps to ease me into wakefulness. I like not turning on the light right away and with the ipad I can read and leave it off.
Another BIG benefit of an eReader is I don’t feel guilty for highlighting the phrases and sections of a book that really speak to me. Especially in nonfiction books I find myself marking passages that I know I want to reread later. They are easy to find on the iPad.
I do have a few real books sitting on my nightstand that I NEED to work though. My goal this month is to tackle one of those. It's a big challenge for me because they are all nonfiction books which are my special reading challenge
March Book List
As I was reading this month, it seemed like I wasn’t reading as many books because in the first half of March I was really investing a lot of time in getting my eBook, Rags to Rugs, ready to launch! It went live on the 23rd and then life slowed down again.
I think I finished 3 books in one week after the eBook was launched! It helped that we took a road trip for Easter to visit my son and his family! Note that I finished TWO nonfiction books in March!!!! (patting myself on the back)
Desperate by Sarah Mae & Sally Clarkson
I FINALLY finished this book! It’s been on the in progress list for a while. Excellent read. Here are some of my highlights.
“When we follow the voice of God and rest in His ability to sustain us as mothers, we will find a true and lasting peace.”
“Before our children can reap the rewards of our investment in their souls, we must first nourish our own hearts and cling to the ideals God has given us as personal convictions”
“The real trick to joy, I’m finding, is to focus on the good things.”
“We worry. We want the best. We want to be good mothers. We fear messing up, or coming up short, or just plain failing. At least I do. I can get bogged down in all that I have to do that planning beauty and adventure is just another thing that takes work and will exhaust me.”
Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakable Peace by Sarah McKenzie
I began this book over a year ago. Seriously. It is a wonderful book that I could do a whole post on and I plan to in April. Life around here a year ago was me recovering from cornea transplant surgery and recovering from a hellish two years of caring for my parents. Adventures that left me physically, mentally and emotionally drained.
This book was so healing because I was carrying a lot of guilt over the quality of teaching that I was providing for my children. I love her voice in the book because it makes me feel like she and I just sat down for a cup of tea and a discussion of teaching from rest. I walked away with reassurance and peace after I listened to her wisdom.
All the Way to Heaven by Becky Doughty
This book is about a young woman who is on a journey to Italy. But it is also about her journey to understand herself and who she really is. Rejection and difficulty are in her past and two men are in her present. She learns much by experiencing the kindness and love of strangers who help her when she is hurt. This books is a G rated romance but it is about much more than love. I’m eagerly anticipating the next book in the series!
Cloak of Light, Rise of the Fallen and Light of the Last by Chuck Black
I started reading these a few weeks before Easter at the urging of my 13 year old son. It’s funny how I get book recommendations from my kids. It used to be the other way around but I don’t mind. He loves action and adventure and these books were packed with it.
I love following people’s salvation stories, even if they are fiction, and this story involved the fight between the realms that we as humans cannot see. Black's descriptions of seven foot angels and demons and their conflicts drew me in! I highly recommend this series.
In Progress
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
I’m just a few pages in so I won’t try to give any feed back yet. My children are learning about the era of the World Wars and this one is set in that time period as well.
Generally books set in that time are hard for me to read but I think it is super important to reflect on what happened so that we will not forget.
The Fringe Hours: Making Time for You by Jessica Turner
Ahhhhhh another book that I have started in the past and never finished. I think I have checked it out from the library 3 times and I’m only a quarter of the way through it. Sad I know. I’m going to finish it this time. I’m loving the progress that I’ve made on non fiction books by reading 15 or 20 minutes a day. My word of the year is PROGRESS so this is the perfect reflection of that.
So what are you reading that you would recommend or that you don’t like?
I would love to hear what your thoughts! Please share in the comments or jump over to Day to Day Adventure’s Facebook page or tweet me @Day2DayAdv!
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