The "Bella Grace" Reading Challenge

 

Back in Autumn of 2021, I came across some magazines at one of my local bookstores. They are "Bella Grace Magazine" and "Field Guide to Everyday Magic". Bella Grace is a magazine filled with a lot of wistfully beautiful entries from readers and sometimes journal prompts too. As for the Field Guide to Everyday Magic, made by the same company, those books are simply guided journals that are released periodically. I think that the covers, contents, and prompts are all so wonderful that I can hardly stop myself from purchasing each new magazine that comes out! Now, while this sounds great, it is a bit of a problem for me. You see, I currently have five issues of Bella Grace Magazine and three issues of the Field Guides... and I still want to get more of them because they're just so pretty! The problem, though, is that I haven't even finished reading or writing in even one of the books I have completely. So I'm basically buying the magazines only to put them on my shelf to collect dust. That's not fair to my wallet OR to the magazines that I buy.

Call me strange, but I like to believe that even books and magazines have some kind of spirit in them, made more vibrant by people reading their contents. That's why I like to buy used books when possible; because there's more of a chance that they were well loved. In fact, I'd rather buy books that are "Acceptable" in condition rather than "Like New". I LOVE books with bent and watered pages, tattered covers, and the smell of someone else's home inside of them. And if I'm not buying used, I'd rather read from the library too, because even those books have stories to tell about where they've been and all the sights they've seen, courtesy of the readers who came before me. Granted, I can't actually hear the books, but the sentiment of their whereabouts is still there all the same. So when I place a book or magazine on my shelf to be neglected for months or years at a time, I'm doing a great disservice to them. In essence, I feel that I'm making them feel unwanted. Books are not meant simply for decoration, they are meant to be read and consumed; to help develop us in ways that we didn't even know were possible. All of those lessons are waiting for me to grab, but because I neglect the books and magazines in question, I'm stagnated in my growth just that much more.

I know that these circumstances are unfavorable, especially considering all of the free time I happen to have, but there is a way for me to rectify this! I'm always trying to read more, so why not start with these magazines that I happen to love so much? My plan moving forward is for me to start reading the magazines and books currently on my shelf until I'm finished with them. Then I can do with those magazines what I will, whether that be transcribing some of their contents into another notebook for future reference, or simply selling them on eBay for someone else to enjoy (provided I haven't written in them directly). I think that would be a splendid idea and something that could bring me a lot of growth and joy. Because of the magazines I'd like to start off with, I'll be calling this the "Bella Grace Reading Challenge". I'd like to see how many of these magazines I can finish before the end of the year. Oh, and to keep me motivated, I think I'm going to start keeping a reading log of the books that I consume. Finally, planning times to read in my schedule would be a good idea too so I can commit to being off of my phone at those times.