Today is the first day of the two week spring school holidays break. It’s such a nice time of the year, weather wise, even out here in the desert. It’s not too hot yet and the mornings are lovely and fresh. I am really looking forward to two weeks off work just potting around the house, not having to get up to an alarm, reading, drinking tea all day long, and reading some more.
I’ve been thinking this week though about what I want to read and what I want to achieve over this two week break in terms of catching up on some books I’ve not yet found time for as well as reading in advance as I have quite a few really good arcs sitting there that are coming out towards the end of the year.
Usually on these two week school holiday breaks, I also like to binge watch a few television series. I don’t watch TV during term time generally, as the afternoons and weekends are too busy and I like to reserve the evenings for reading, so I save my TV viewing for the holidays. However, like all binge watchers, stopping at just one episode is a battle I often lose and before I know it, several hours have passed and I’m still watching the series, unable to drag myself away yet desperately hoping for an ending to the current episode that doesn’t have me pressing ‘next’. Hours of my life, gone watching TV. Hours of my life, not spent reading a book.
For this spring holiday break, I am banning TV for myself. No binge watching. No TV shows. At all. I’m quite excited about it. I’m not extending this to movies though, for a couple of reasons. First of all, I have kids and sometimes they want me to watch a movie with them. Second reason, I almost never watch movies, despite having a long list of ones I want to see, because I AM USING ALL THE HOLIDAY TIME BINGE WATCHING TV!! So movies are staying and hopefully I’ll get to catch up on a couple. But where TV sucks up my time, movies won’t because I would never watch more than one movie in a day, which is a whole lot less screen time that TV.
The second part of my reading challenge relates directly to what I’m going to read. For these two weeks, I’m going to exclusively read review titles. BUT, I am going to dig into the pile and read a few that I didn’t get to on time, particularly those ones that authors themselves have sent to me at their own expense.
So there’s the plan. I’ll check in next Saturday with an update on how I’m going. My son thinks the TV ban is a mistake, but then he also said he expects I’ll be able to stick with it because I am a person who is happiest when doing boring things. Ah, teens, they know just how to wield that double edged sword!
Theresa Smith Writes 
Good idea! I need to join you on this challenge for all the same reasons! School holidays have begun for us too. Happy reading, non tv watching and good luck xx
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So far so good… 😁
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Good news! Not so good yesterday… zilch reading completed. Markets are to blame!
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In your defence, that would be hard to juggle!
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Yes sure is. Today was more successful, read a book this afternoon and just finished a review scheduled for Thursday. Doing up a Q & A for tomorrow right now and hoping to get a good start on another book! I hope you are on track xx
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So far no trouble sticking to the plan! 😊
That is a productive day.
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Brilliant news, big smiles and thumbs up 🙂
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Gosh, somehow I had not known that you live in a desert! But of course I should have guessed from your header photo of Sturt’s Desert Pea..
I am impressed by your plans. I will be even more impressed if you stick to them (says she, who is an abject failure at sticking to plans!)
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So will I! Ha! But then it’s only two weeks, so that instantly improves the odds.
Technically, if we go on location, Mount Isa is more arid outback than actual desert, but the climate is desert and we are completely in the middle of nowhere. We rarely experience humidity. Just dry hot or dry cold, with the odd crackler of a storm. The desert peas in my header I photographed outside of the pharmacy in the middle of town. They planted them in the traffic islands to spruce the town up at rodeo time. They are a magnificent flower to examine up close (and here’s the botany dork popping up to say hello).
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Ah, Mt Isa, that’s down in my book as remote with a capital R. But you never know, The Spouse has just bought himself a new Subaru and will want to do trips to inaccessible places with dirt roads, so you never know, one day, I might be in touch to ask you to put on the kettle for a cup of tea…
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You would be very welcome!
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Good luck with your challenge Theresa. We have another week before school holidays start in NSW and although I no longer have children at school I have always taken the October school holidays off since forever so I’ll be having two weeks off very soon. No plan on what I’ll be reading but hoping to get a few other things done as well.
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Thanks Veronica. I can understand why you continue to take these two weeks off, it’s a lovely time of the year.
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This is such a good idea!
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I haven’t caved so far!
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Oooooh, I love a good challenge 😉 Hope you’re powering through!
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It’s going quite well. I’m not even missing the tv shows. I’m also not reading quite as much as I thought I would. Too much faffing about the house catching up on housework I’ve let slide and when I do sit down, I keep falling asleep! 😁 But I’ve read four books this week, and it’s only Thursday, so maybe that’s not too bad at all.
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