Our oldest daughter announced to us at our Christmas family gathering, then announced on Facebook (because if it is on Facebook, then it really happened) that she set a goal in 2024 to read 1000 books. And, she achieved that goal! Divide that by 365 to know how many books she needed to average DAILY. I can’t even imagine reading ONE book a day! She was honest when she shared this achievement with the family that she mostly read romance novels that are quick reads. She is a very fast reader anyway, but reading that genre only helped to increase the number of books she could read at one sitting.

After she made this announcement at our family gathering, I leaned over to her 15-year-old autistic boy, gave him a nudge and said, “Your mom is back!” He, being a literal thinker, looked at me questioningly, then looked at her and back at me again. I said, “Your mom read 1000 books in a year. She obviously, was not very present in the moments. Since she will not be reading so much, she should be able to be more present in your daily life.” In a softly defensive response, she said, “We spend every Friday together because he volunteers at the library with me and we get to go to lunch together.” Well, I guess that is better than nothing and everyone parents their own way. Who am I to judge?

She has always been a bit goal oriented and well educated. While working full time she went to a local college and received her Bachelor’s Degree. Then she trotted herself off to Scotland for a year where she could fast track receiving her Master’s Degree in something that would help her become a top librarian at our local library. Our grandson stayed home with his dad while his mom was gone that year. They seemed to make it work.

I bet you are not surprised she is a librarian… and a good one, at that.

I suppose that when you are surrounded by books all day every day, it would make sense that you would want to devour a few!