Sara Reyes | 2011 Recap: Lists versus Pondering

I’ve been inundated this week by everyone in my household making lists, cleaning up and decluttering and last dash attempts at completing projects. Ah the world of people who write. I never realized that it’s so important to make lists of what you’ve read or films you’ve watched or tv shows viewed, but apparently that’s an all consuming task that seems to me becomes a chore. I don’t read for list making, so I have no idea nor do I want to know, the number of books I read in 2011 or 2010 or plan to read in 2012. You must understand, I’ve never looked on reading as something approaching a homework assignment. I read for pleasure, for conversation, for thinking and pondering.

Ah, pondering, I love to PONDER. My Christmas gift this year was AMERICAN NATIONS. Yes, a heavy, non-fiction, thought provoking, and ultimately depressing tome on why Americans including Canadians and citizens of Mexico are not part of a “melting pot” but maintain nationalities very similar to the fractious Europeans. As I said, depressing in the end. But along the read, very thought provoking. I’d suppose if I had to keep a list or make a roster of my 2011 reading, I would not have the time to spend re-reading chapters of AMERICAN NATIONS but instead be ripping through the last books I needed to complete my “reading” or “listening” goals. Alas, I just bored my family silly talking about why I thought I now understood my family who remained in Pennsylvania thought-patterns and why they voted the way they did. Or why our Texan family is really blended from two separate cultures, or why education is important for us versus not so much for our co-workers and acquaintances. Why we gravitate to certain people and not to others, and well, you see, a whole host of thoughts came out of the pondering.

On the other hand, the family members who had lists to pursue spent the holiday week in a frantic rush to catch up on films. No, I really did NOT want to watch or hear that selection of strange French Fairy Tales although I did enjoy the marathon Firefly watching and revisting Die Hard and Die Hard 2 (Die Harder). Never did find Die Hard with a Vengeance, ah well. And the fact that Gwen (ReelVixen) actually watched over 150 films in 2011 isn’t mind boggling as much as remembering all the dinners she missed and the conversations we had about strange films and meanings of this and that.

So, what are you doing? Are you one of those list makers tracking your pleasures and escapes? If so, what’s your score? If you’re more like me and read for pleasure, what are the books you remember with joy from the year? To entice you to answer, we’ll give away something from our contest pool. I’m sure the Manager of Prize Fulfillment has something you’ll love. After all, he spent a few days sorting and labeling boxes of books that definitely need a new good home!

Until next time…Get out there and READ a book…
Sara Reyes
DFW Tea Readers Group

Join us at Readers ‘n ‘ritas November 9-12, 2012! with Eloisa James, Sarah MacLean and more guests

See you on the Twitter (@FreshFiction) or Facebook!

To comment on Sara’s blog please click here.