Old Dog, New Reading Tricks

Last month I took part in my first ever Buddy Read. Basically it’s like school where the read leader chops a book up into sections, and tells you how much you should read each week. By the end of the month you will have finished the book, and you can discuss it with other readers. By sticking to the schedule you all finish right around the same time, and no one spoils anything for anyone else.

At the same time my 6th grader came home with a notice about his first ever book report. My son is not one to sit down with a good book and read the day away, so I helped him create a reading schedule to hit all of the milestones he needs to, just like with the buddy read.

After that it occurred to me that I have a huge stack of books I’m having trouble finishing, either because they’re long and all of my other books get jealous when I spend so much time away from them, or because the subject matter is heavy and I can’t take them in large doses. I realized that since the buddy read technique worked well for me, I could try it with some of these books.

My first test will be Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. It’s a novel about the Vietnam War, so it’s both full of heavy subject matter and very long. I started yesterday, and will be sure to report back on how it goes!

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