Cat's 2020 Reading List

I like books. I like to buy them and put them on my shelves, collecting them for some day. Different kinds of books. Mostly non-fiction. Some fiction. Some Get Fuzzy. Some reference. Some travel. Some art & photography. Some childrens. Many of the ones on my shelves are ones I've read. Some I've started and never finished. Some I haven't started yet. They sit there patiently, collecting dust, waiting for me to give them some attention. Waiting for me to engage, to learn, to expand, to stretch, to grow.

This year, I'm challenging myself to read at minimum 1 of these books per month. They aren't easy topics but they are very important and relevant. Most of them. Some are for in between, for a mental rest, for a lighter type of fun. I enjoy reading, especially books that challenge me in ways that bring about growth. I prefer the serious topics. I always have.

The ones that people don't like to hear about or read about or look at.
The ones that bear ugly truths and painful stories.
The ones that tell the other side of history, the one that gets hidden, obscured, ignored, denied.
The ones that we should all read and yet many have not, will not.
The ones we try so hard to ignore with so many distractions. . . until they become about us. Personally. Our families, our friends. Our lives. Often it is only then that we seem to care, not realizing that when it's happening to strangers near or far, it truly is affecting our daily lives, whether we recognize it or not. We are all connected and it matters what's happening to others.

These are the stories we must read, the histories we must look at, the difficult we must listen to. They are what life is made of and broken by. They are the ones that bring about long-overdue, much-needed change, if only we engage. I don't read for only my own gratification, my own enjoyment, my own knowledge, but to share it and to have the info become a part of my life in ways that contribute to positive change and hard conversations. We spend so much time focusing on the nonsense, the minuscule, the foolish. Maybe sometimes we need that but when those things become the norm, the always, the only, we limit ourselves, we damage our societies, and we end up with a world full of all the ugly things we've been ignoring because we refused to face them, to acknowledge them, to address them, and to stop them.

So I'm starting this stack, in no particular order, and invite you along. If you want to join me in the reading, I'll let you know what I'm starting and I'll be sharing along the way. Maybe you want to start your own stack, begin your own challenge. I'd love to hear about it.

#Cats2020readinglist