Could You Read A Book A Day For A Year?
Posted by: Ami Angelowicz
Filed in:
entertainment
12:20PM, Tuesday October 13th 2009
Whenever I’m going through an existential crisis, reading a great book usually helps. Clearly, 46-year-old Nina Sankovitch of Connecticut understands the profound satisfaction that can be found from sitting down with a good read. She’s close to finishing a mission to read one book every day for a year and blog about it. Yes! Every. Single. Day. Even holidays. She may be my new hero.
October 28 will mark the end of her year of books. Her rules? All the books are ones she has not read. She reads only one book per author. She reads one book per day and posts the review the next day. Sure … she’s had to give up some things this year like gardening and lunching with the ladies. But she saw it as a challenge, and was happy to have the opportunity to inspire a love of books in others. Plus, reading helped her find her way through a period of sorrow and soul-searching brought on by the death of her sister in 2005. “I’ve always thought great literature is all one needs to read to understand human psychology, emotions, even history,” Nina says. “For someone sitting around reading books, it’s been a really lively year.” Follow Nina’s reading list on Read All Day. I don’t know about you, but I’m inspired. [New York Times]
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freudxslipped
wrote on October 13 2009 @ 11:42 am: [report]
I could back during my high school summers :(
Such carefree times when I didn’t have actual responsibilities to care for.
joyy
wrote on October 13 2009 @ 11:48 am: [report]
It must be nice to have all day every day free to sit around and read!
Shriekback68
wrote on October 13 2009 @ 11:50 am: [report]
Impressive, but what about non-fiction titles? I read about 25-30 books per year, nearly all non-fiction. Perhaps it’s a taste thing. Non-fiction (at least for me) requires much more intellectual engagement than fiction…therefore, it takes more time.
Call me cynical, but these “living life doing X for a year” projects smack of self-serving promotions with only one goal in mind: to publish.
Rose
wrote on October 13 2009 @ 11:55 am: [report]
I wonder how much of each book she’ll actually remember, say a year from now. Good books need to be savoured and thought about, sometimes discussed and re-read to get the full benefit. I could run my eyes over a book a day, too, I imagine, but if they’re worth reading, they ought to be worth reading carefully.
GreenAura
wrote on October 13 2009 @ 12:03 pm: [report]
I wouldn’t want to do it in the first place. Yeah, reading is great, I love losing myself in a great book. BUT if I had that much time on my hands and didn’t have to worry about working full time and going to school, I would be doing something active rather than sitting around and reading all day. Booorrriiinnnggg
Shriekback68
wrote on October 13 2009 @ 12:04 pm: [report]
Well said, Rose.
sklut
wrote on October 13 2009 @ 12:22 pm: [report]
As a full time student with a full time job, you couldn’t pay me enough to sit around and read a book every single day. I love reading and I love the process of reading and it kind of defeats the purpose when you put a deadline on finishing the book. You don’t give yourself enough time to enjoy and understand it completely.
Erica Maxwell
wrote on October 13 2009 @ 12:30 pm: [report]
I love the idea of it, but I’m far too easily distracted by Law & Order reruns to succeed.
Jillybean
wrote on October 13 2009 @ 01:00 pm: [report]
This year I’ve been making a note of and reviewing every book I’ve read. I’m not keeping count of them, but I’m hoping I’ll average one a week over the year. I consider myself a real bookophile but I simply could not devote that much time to reading. I have my own writing/working/socialising to do!
AlisonNoelle
wrote on October 13 2009 @ 01:06 pm: [report]
As a very avid reader I come pretty close. Depending on how busy I am I can read about 3-5 books a week. Its the way I spend my down time. I don’t watch tv a whole lot and I want to set a good example for my kids as well. It prolly has alot to do with how I was raised. If I was bored I heard “Go read a book”. Now thats what my kids hear. Besides I heard its like good for your brain to read or something like that.
lalaland
wrote on October 13 2009 @ 01:14 pm: [report]
If I had no other obligations, including things like dealing with bills and getting groceries and cooking for myself, then yes, I could definitely read a book a day. So… who wants to sponsor my year of reading? I’ll write all about it!?
writergirl
wrote on October 13 2009 @ 01:17 pm: [report]
If I didn’t have other responsibilities, yeah, I could read a book in an entire day. And remember it. And actually get the nuances out of it. I’ve done it, and still do it occasionally, though before marriage/children it was a more common occurance.
This woman has nothing but time on her hands. Must be nice.
Drea
wrote on October 13 2009 @ 03:13 pm: [report]
I could probably do about one a week if I tried really hard. I’m not willing to give up what it would take to read one a day though. Yes reading is great, but there’s more than that to life.
Pinky
wrote on October 13 2009 @ 03:50 pm: [report]
I wish I could I have so many books I want to read….but I read really slow..it takes me about 2 weeks to get through an average paperback
hawaiianpeach
wrote on October 13 2009 @ 07:22 pm: [report]
I could if I were starving and living in a box.
CJ1432
wrote on October 13 2009 @ 07:32 pm: [report]
I wish….if anybody is offering a job doing this then I’m your girl.
dressrehearsal
wrote on October 15 2009 @ 10:24 am: [report]
Rose - As someone who for years reads rather a lot - about 4 books a week - I can tell you that the process is different for everyone, and reading more quickly than others might doesn’t have to mean that a book is skimmed or not fully taken in . Occasionally, with something very dense and long - i.e. Anna Karenina - I’ll take longer, but generally I read at the rate that is natural for me, and books that are beautifully written - or witty, or moving - or for that matter, poorly crafted - stay with me years and years after the last page was turned. Stories and characters and particular lines come to mind as if they were recalled events. I don’t mean this should be everyone’s experience (it’s a bit obsessive in my case, granted) but I flinched at your saying Nina S. wasn’t “reading carefully” and wouldn’t remember the books she’s reading now.
Really, all that matters is that people keep reading - (and hopefully real books, not the screens of Kindles or Iphones etc).
Shriekback - Sankovitch does include some non-fiction titles, btw. Not the books I might choose (actually there’s a good sized pile in her collection of last year I’d never bother with, but to each their own). I agree with you though about the self-marketing angle of this. Part of me likes that she’s promoting the act of reading when more and more people are turning on the television instead of picking up a book, but it does seem like a way to publish herself and make a fair bit of noise while doing so.
And CJ - quick, look at that enormous parrot that just flew over your head! (Oops, just took your place in line for that reading job. Desperate times call for desperate measures).