I have loved reading since I was a little girl. One of my favorite days at school was getting the packets for book orders. Something about circling alllll the books I wanted my parents to buy me so I could read was just so satisfying. I rarely ended up even getting any of them, just circling them and noting which book I would next check out of the library gave me a thrill. One time, I was lucky enough to convince my parents to let me sign up for The Boxcar Children book-club. I would receive 4-5 books of the series every month. Of course they would only last me about a week or so and then I would have to wait another 3 weeks until the next books in the series came in the mail. The suspense of waiting until the next few came nearly killed me every month. It never once occurred to me that if I didn’t read them all in the first three days that I wouldn’t have to wait as long. Plus, where would the fun have been in that?!
During my college years, I didn’t get to read as much for enjoyment as my reading time was consumed by endless nursing textbooks. As I was brainstorming for my Day Zero Project, I wanted to incorporate reading for fun back into my life so I set a goal of reading an averages of at least one book a month. This turns out to be a minimum of 33 books over the entire 1001 days. 33 books doesn’t seem like a lot, but I knew as I was working towards my Master’s Degree that I would have readings for classes that I’d have to complete and I didn’t want to set unrealistic goals. Now that I have completed my Master’s Degree and have settled into my new position here, I once again have found the time for leisure reading.
I recently joined a reading challenge with some fellow student affairs professionals in which I pledged #52in52 meaning I will ready 52 books this year! 🙂 Sound crazy? maybe a little, but there are so many great books that I want to read. I feel as though joining in this challenge will help me stay diligent in my daily readings! This pledge will also help ensure I get all 33 books completed for my Day Zero Project.
Recently I have completed books 1-3! I take notes as I read them to help me remember what I read and also because I am going to put together handouts to use at staff meetings with my Resident Assistants 🙂 Yay for additional professional development opportunities for my staff!
1. The Civility Solution: What to do when people are rude by P.M. Forni. ~ I had read The Civility Solution with my former RD staff at UIndy and enjoyed it so thought I would read another one of his books.
2. The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown ~ I am attending the ACPA conference in Indianapolis this year and Brene Brown is one of the keynote speakers! Plan on reading her other books before the conference as well 🙂 She is amazing! Highly recommended!!
3.Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg ~ Was given this book by a coworker who is an all around great lady! She is very empowering and totally great at what she does. This book will be especially great to bring to my RA staff!
Once I have these said handouts compiled I will upload them to this post (pending I can figure out how!) so you read what I learned and maybe be inspired to pick one of them up yourself! I’m a big fan of lending people books so be sure to let me know if you would like to borrow one 🙂
Also, due to my recent pledge, I am open to book suggestions! Let me know of any good reads you’ve come across recently! 🙂 No photos this time, guess next time I can take some selfies of myself reading these books 🙂 Haha probably not though!
101 Things to do in 1001 Days! 