I recently paused reading a book.  I like to say “paused” instead of “stopped” because I believe that if there was something that attracted me to the book in the first place, but I’m not connecting to it in the moment, there may be a point in the future where the words and I click.  The book — Solve for Happy by Mo Gawdat — started off great, but then I lost interest around chapter five.

So I set it aside and tore through Heather Lende’s Find the Good.  I’ll admit that I bought it due to the lemon on the cover.  Looking at the lemon made me feel happy.  The essays were set in her remote Alaskan town; a small slice of finding the good in every life.

In both cases, I was reading the book as part of my 15 minute improvement plan.  I’ve stuck with it for about three weeks now, and I’m tracking it in my bullet journal.  I may not be better… yet (growth mindset!), but I feel like I’m filling my head with helpful thoughts instead of scrolling through Facebook again.

Anyway, there are tons of posts out there telling people how to push on through and finish reading books that they start.  And other posts out there telling people that it’s totally okay to stop reading a book because we’re adults now.  But there’s nothing lukewarm out there telling people to pause and return to books.  So I’m filling that gap?

Do I ever return to paused books?  Yes.  I can’t remember any off the top of my head right now, but I know I’ve done this.  When I return to the book, I start over from the beginning.  OH — Good Omens.  There, that’s a book that I paused and returned to because while I liked it enough as I was reading it the first time, I could tell that I would probably really love the book if I read it at another time.  And I was correct.

But there are many other paused books whose stories are suspended in figurative aspic.  My goal is to come back to them one day.  Maybe.  If it ever feels right.

It’s not goodbye; it’s see you later.

Do you ever return to books you stop reading?

I have been pleasantly surprised by Deborah Harkness’s A Discovery of Witches.  More than one person warned me that I wouldn’t like it, so I avoided it because the first few pages didn’t grab me.  I thought I’d wait and see the television version because the story intrigued me.  But the television version is only offered on streaming sites, and I’m not getting a subscription.  So I grabbed the book from the library, and I’ve been enjoying it in the same way that I enjoyed Twilight.  Is it great writing?  No.  But I love vampires and witches, so… let’s just say that this book is exceeding expectations.

I love Tig Notaro’s I’m Just a Person.  The ChickieNob discovered Tig this week, so I got out the audio book.  But I expected to love this book because (1) I love Tig’s joke writing and (2) I love her delivery.  And you get both with the audio book, even though she’s detailing dark moments in her life.  So this book is meeting high expectations.

I like Becoming by Michelle Obama.  It is a solid book.  A sturdy story.  I remember post-election, pre-White House, I was standing in line at the grocery store with an older woman, and we were both commenting on how happy we were.  “She’s going to be our Jackie O,” I said, “completely redefining the role again.”  And she did.  She invited us into their story, made the White House truly The People’s House.  So my expectations were high for this book because Michelle Obama is an incredible person with an incredible story.  And I’m totally liking it, but I’m not blown away.  It could be the hype that preceded the book and there are zero surprises because it was all discussed in articles before I ever got my hands on a copy.  So in this case… the lead up is making this not meet expectations.

But if I have to rank them in terms of great to decent, it goes I’m Just a Person, Becoming, A Discovery of Witches.  In one case, expectations made me like something more, and in another case, expectations made me like something less.  I’m not sure what this means except that it’s interesting to see how expectations about a book affect the reading of it.

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Stop procrastinating.  Go make your backups.  Don’t have regrets.

Seriously.  Stop what you’re doing for a moment.  It will take you fifteen minutes, tops.  But you will have peace of mind for days and days.  It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

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And now the blogs…

But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week.  In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “FB Posts from the Other Side” (Battlefish) — see below, I read it late
• “Yes, ‘Relentless’ is the Right Word” (Not a Wasted Word)
• “Ready to Grow” (Stirrup Queens) — thank you, Cristy!
• “Budgeting Life” (Inconceivable!)
• “Why I Have Zero Regrets About My Childless Life” (Different Shores)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Movable Type has a post about the new year.  She writes, “When I turned 45, anticipating a mid-life crisis of some sort, I started working on a memoir as well as some fiction writing, giving myself freedom and permission to explore writing as a craft. I asked myself what is it I want so much I can taste it? I want to see my name in print.”  I love this.  I love the idea of setting a goal as a way of making the inevitable mid-life feelings navigable.

Old Lady No Baby’s mind is blown because her babies turned five.  Really, how many people think beyond babyhood when they’re going through IF?  But kids grow up and become five year olds and ten year olds and twenty year olds.  She writes, “It took us 14+ years of trying and put us in a ridiculous amount of debt, but our dream of having children finally came true.”  Happy birthday but also congratulations on reaching the happy milestone.

Battlefish writes about Facebook memories and how she feels getting those updates of what was happening a year ago or beyond.  Are they sometimes bittersweet?  Of course.  But they also help her remember how much things have changed, especially when she encounters one that took place during a pregnancy, even if the baby isn’t mentioned.

Lastly, Mine to Command has a totally fascinating post about whether or not to introduce Santa in your child’s world.  Santa fascinates me, especially how people explain why Santa delivers X to one child but Y to another.  So… I just thought this was a really interesting post that left me with food for thought.

The roundup to the Roundup: Three books and expectations.  Your weekly backup nudge.  And lots of great posts to read.  So what did you find this week?  Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between January 11th and 18th) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week?  Read the original open thread post here.

Once upon a time, I was walking across a parking lot and had an idea for a book.

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Once upon a time, I had an idea for a book, and I wrote it over the course of several months.  I wrote the book I wanted to read; about a blogger who was catapulted into a wide readership and wasn’t necessarily ready for the attention as she reconstructed her life after a divorce.  This was before sponsored content and branded social media handles, back when we all sat in each other’s comment sections and carried out long conversations about our lives.  Remember that?

It was only eight years ago.

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Life from Scratch is on sale from January 16th (today!) until January 31st.  It’s just the e-book version, and it’s on sale on all e-book platforms (Kindle, iBooks, B&N, Google, etc).  Do I hope that you’ll buy yourself a copy?  Yes.  Do I hope you’ll purchase a copy for a friend?  Yes, gifts are great.  Do I hope that you’ll help me spread word via your social media platform?  Yes, that would be wonderful — thank you.

It was my second book; the first piece of fiction that I published.  I will always have a soft spot for Rachel Goldman.

I haven’t read Marie Kondo’s book or watched her show because her method would not work for me.  I’ve written in the past about how decluttering brings out my inner Gollum.  I cannot consider whether or not something sparks joy because I am too busy trying to silence my brain from screaming, “Mine!”

But I recently discovered Julie Morgenstern, who marries time management and decluttering into one mindset, and THAT is a philosophy I can get behind.

Return stuff to the same place every single time and you’ll never waste time searching the house for it.  Put your important items, the items that always travel with you out of the house, in a single space, so you can grab and go.  Think of it as extra time you get added to your day.

Don’t think of decluttering as the same thing as organizing.  You declutter one category at a time, such as all of your books or all of your clothes.  You organize one space at a time, such as a drawer or a closet or a room.  You can’t really declutter and organize at the same time.

Don’t have more items on your to-do list than can be completed in the time that you have, even if all of those things really need to get done.  (1) They probably don’t.  (2) Even if they do, you’re not getting to all of them.  So place them in different days and tackle just the ones on today’s list.  Everything will actually get done rather than haphazardly leaving one or two things behind on the list every day.

And give people undivided attention in fifteen minute bursts.  Better to spend fifteen minutes with all devices closed, focused on the person in front of you, than to spend an hour one day and nothing the next.  Consistently giving small amounts of undivided attention is better than giving huge amounts of attention unevenly.

And that’s just what I was able to glean from the beginning of this article.  My plan is to dive into one of her books next week.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I know how to play chess — I was even the head of the chess club at school (because I’m that level of cool) — but I would like to get better at chess.  It has been on my to-do list for a while: Get better at chess.  But I may be too late.  Apparently chess players peak at 36 and then slowly go downhill.

It’s a funny thought to think of yourself as too late for something.  Too young — that is a situation you live over and over again through childhood.  But too old, especially for something non-physical or biological, I thought I had all the time in the world.  I mean, yes, I recognize that there is a big difference between “get better” and “become a grandmaster.”  But still.

It made me wonder what other items on my wish list would be past their expiration date by the time I got around to it.  I imagined that I would learn how to use an D-SLR camera in my later years, add another language, master the sewing machine.

What do you imagine learning in your later years?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.