One of the New Year’s goals and resolutions that Krissy and I set for this year included reading more books so we can keep our minds sharp. We have inadvertently taken that goal and completely worked it into our nightly routine. 

We always read before bed during the weekdays and we typically have the weekends off. Krissy does 95% of the reading since his voice is so soothing to me. I will volunteer to read once in a blue moon, but my voice usually gets hoarse by the time I’m finished with the section.

We’ve read three books so far and have already started on our fourth one. All of them have been Star Wars books, which is coming in super handy since we are making our way through the Rebels TV show. The books fill in gaps where the TV shows don’t go in depth enough to paint the full picture. 

Reading every night helps me fall asleep and I really appreciate Krissy for having the dedication to read even when he’s tired or doesn’t feel like it. We try to make it through a chapter each night, but some chapters bleed over into the next night if they are too thick to finish. Right now, we are making our way through the Thrawn book that describes how he became Grand Admiral in his Rebels debut. That book is pretty thick, so it will probably take us a little over a month or so to completely finish it. 

Of course, Krissy is always planning for our future so I’m sure he’s already started doing some research on the next book up on the docket. I believe it’s going to be one of the Sith books or maybe a Darth Maul book. Before we read the Cal Kestis book last month, we were going to read the Padme trilogy, but I think it’s gotten pushed back indefinitely. 

I remember early last year, we kept seeing the Colleen Hoover books all over the place. Literally everyone was reading those books and saying how amazing they were but I don’t think that genre would be a page turner for us. That’s why I was so happy Krissy stumbled upon the vast catalog of Star Wars related books because there’s literally like 30 books for us to make our way through. 

And with that much content to read, we are pretty much locked in for years. We read at a decent pace, but we definitely don’t like speed reading. Back in my day, I had a competition going with myself to read books as fast as possible. I loved getting new books but knew that to buy a new one, I had to finish one. 

I think the fastest I’ve ever finished a book is right at under 24 hours. I think I was in high school at the time and it was during the summer. I started the book at about 7 PM, read until I went to sleep at roughly 1 AM, woke up, ate breakfast, and finished the book by 3 PM. I was indeed insane. I don’t remember the name of the book, but I know it was written by Sarah Dessen and I can vividly see the purple and pink cover in my mind’s eye. It wasn’t absurdly shorter than the other books I was reading at the time either. I guess you could say I was determined to check that one off of my “To Read” list. 

Now that I’m older, and have real responsibilities, and limited time, there’s no way I’d finish a book within 24 hours of starting it. I’m totally fine with that. When you really think about it, what’s the point of rushing through a book anyways? Might as well take things at a steady pace to savor and really comprehend the story. 

Signed, 

Jessica Marie