So, I love to read. But being in grad school literally makes it impossible to read for leisure. I made a goal for this ~5 week break from school to read 10 books that have been sitting on my wish list for months…
Honestly… I didn’t get to read 10. I was so overwhelmed with school all year that I took a few weeks to just sit around and do any and everything my heart desired, and the reading got put on the backburner. Whoops.
I did, however, read 8! Here is a list of all the books I read over my winter break:
- The Beast Side by D.Watkins
- The Baltimore Rowhouse by Charles Belfoure
- Blockbusting in Baltimore: The Edmondson Village Story by W.Orser
- The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
- The Conversation by Hill Harper
- Mind Estranged: My Journey from Schizophrenia and Homelessness to Recovery by Bethany Yeiser
- Without A Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class, by Michelle Tea
- It’s Kind of A Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
The first 4 books are about Baltimore. I’ve only lived in Baltimore for about 9 months, and have worked in Baltimore for about a year and a half. I must say, Baltimore is so interesting and intriguing to me. Working at a community clinic, I met so many misunderstood, underrepresented people from East and West Baltimore alike. Not being from here, I see things differently then they do. Reading about the history of black people in Baltimore, from housing to poor education systems to the general urban decay of the city was insightful. And although I’m no Baltimorean and never will be, reading about how Baltimore became what it is today and why the people of Baltimore love their city so much made me enjoy my experiences and life here even more.
As for my unaccomplished goal… I look at it like this – Shoot for the moon. So if you miss, at least you’ll land in the stars. 8 out of 10 books is still better than 0 books. I’ll take it.
TheCurlyFrugalista 