Books

So I just wanted to share an interesting side effect of my sober journey. I’ve been sober since December 20th of last year. In my earlier life, I was an avid reader. I loved digging into a book and was almost always reading. That had dropped off drastically over the years and I always just attributed it to life happening, kids, job, etc and just not having enough time.

But interestingly enough, that never stopped me from *starting* a book, it just kept me from *finishing* a book. In fact, I still bought books constantly. I have SO MANY on the shelf I had read 20 pages of and then just never returned to again.

When I stopped reading, by the new year I decided I wanted to just challenge myself to finish one book. That was all. It was surprisingly easy. Only took about a week in total and I never felt like I was pressed for time. Honestly I didn’t realize what was happening at first, but here is what I’ve come to realize. Drinking had DRASTICALLY impacted my focus. Having some amount of patience and focus is required for most adult literature. My desire to finish a 400-600 page book after begrudgingly working through the first 20 pages and then just cracking a beer was little to none.

Since I stopped drinking, I’ve finished 7 books and have three more queued up from the library.

Stop drinking and read a book!