“In 2017, despite getting married, vacationing in Maine, and remodeling three rooms in my house, I managed to read 137 books.”
This is not a skit: it’s a quote from an article about finishing the 2018 Goodreads Reading Challenge. Four bibliophiles who read over 100 books a year talked about their reading habits and their challenge tips.
Goodreads is a fun site, where I’ve found excellent books, like Grace Dane Mazur’s brilliant novel, The Garden Party. And I enjoy the Goodreads Reading Challenge. And yet every year women bloggers and women writers publish articles about anxiety about the Goodreads challenge. Is this sublimation for other anxieties in the 21st century? Or does the internet foster discontent?
Do we consume more books by participating in reading challenges? Of course. There is the Women in Translation challenge, the Pop Sugar challenge, the historical novel challenge, the TBR challenge, Japanese lit, Italian lit, German lit, and hundreds of others. The problem is, if you do all these, you won’t have time to achieve your personal goals.
I’m not a particularly political person, but after reading some 20th-century articles on anarchism and feminism, I started thinking about how the internet shapes our consumerism. Marketers stalk us. We are encouraged to consume more commodities. We must do more book challenges, post cuter selfies, read more books, get more followers and “friends,” and buy those adorable soft lounging clothes I now see at lifestyle blogs and crave, and why is there still a void?
In one of the articles I recently read, a feminist anarchist reminds us of what I used to know.
It is difficult to consume people who put up a fight, who resist the cannibalizing of their bodies, their minds, their daily lives. A few people manage to resist, but most don’t resist effectively, because they can’t. It is hard to locate our tormentor, because it is so pervasive, so familiar. We have known it all our lives. It is our culture.
I told my husband that I might become an anarchist. He said, “You’ll have to show people you are and dress like an anarchist.”
Well, I can’t afford a new wardrobe…
Happy Reading Challenges, People, and remember, you control the number—it doesn’t control you!
Hear Hear!
🙂
Sent from my iPad
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