One of the philosophy zoom meetings I attend is the Denver Philosophy Group on meetup. After each monthly meeting, the host gives an opportunity for each participant to share what they have been reading or thinking about. Many times, the only authentic share I have is from podcasts and I wish I had an actual book to talk about.

This month’s challenge is fairly simple: I want to physically read and listen to audiobooks every day. The specifics:

• Read a physical book for at least 15 minutes each day – I am going to start the first week by continuing to read 2 books that have been on my shelf for a while: Cringeworthy by Melissa Dahl, and How We Live Is How We Die by Pema Chodron.

• Listen to an audiobook for at least 15 minutes each day – I just signed up for a free month-long trial of Audible and used 1 credit to download Mel Robbins’ book: The Let Them Theory. I will start this week with that.
• Every Sunday, start a new book and audiobook – Whether I am finished or not, I want to keep moving on; if the book was really engrossing, I am sure I will want to finish it on my own time; if not, maybe just skimming the rest is best.

I recently signed up for a HOTWORX fitness studio membership which is a 10-minute drive from where I live, so I should have plenty of opportunities to fit in the audiobook time. As for the hands-on part of the challenge, reading in bed for 10-15 minutes is a great last-resort option and also tends to help me mentally unwind, provided the book isn’t a fiction thriller.

I live very close to the Longview Public Library, so acquiring physical books should not be a problem. I went yesterday prepared to buy a new library card (I couldn’t locate mine) and someone had serendipitously found it on the sidewalk and returned it!

Namaste.