On My Night Table

As I’ve mentioned before (here and here), I am a several books at the same time kind of girl.  It’s not so much that I get bored with reading one book, but it’s the idea that I have different options that I love.  The norm for me is typically 2-3 very different books going at the same time.  But right now I have 5.  Yes, 5 books.  And since I don’t get to spend as much time reading as I would like, it’s probably going to take me a good bit to get through all of these.  But…there they are, sitting all cute and stacked on my night table, ready for my enjoyment.

At the top of my stack is “The Power of Being Thankful: 365 Devotions for Discovering the Strength of Gratitude” by Joyce Meyer.  After re-watching The Secret at the start of the New Year, I made a very purposeful choice to work on creating more positive thoughts.  “The Secret” suggests that a great way to super-charge your life is to have gratitude.   Showing appreciation for anything or everything in your life instantly starts bringing back positive energy to you in all different forms – opportunities, positive work experiences, kind strangers, etc…  So, I am trying everyday to work on having an attitude of gratitude.  “The Power of Being Thankful” is actually a daily devotional that I have been making a point to read first thing each day.  It only takes about 2 minutes to read, but it is a great way to spend a quiet moment being reflective on gratitude.  And those are definitely good thoughts to start out the day with.

“The Little Book of Hygge” by Meik Wiking.  I actually bought this book knowing absolutely nothing about it.  Like literally nothing.  I saw someone online with a picture of it, and I thought that it looked cute.  So I bought it.  Seriously, don’t ask me why, but here we are talking about how I bought a book that I knew absolutely nothing about.  Anyways, once I conquered properly pronouncing hygge (say hoo-ga), and then promptly decided to continuing pronouncing it incorrectly (say hyy-gee), I started in on this baby.  And so far, so good.  My hopes of it being some sort of weird Danish counterpart to Marie Kondo were spot on.  If you have read “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up”, and you have experienced the power of de-cluttering, then I think that you are definitely ready to graduate on to hygge, and making sure that what you have in your home is giving your life a good dose of hygge.  Although I am just skimming the surface on this one (I’m only 40 pages in), I’ve already reached the conclusion that we definitely need all new lighting.  Immediately.  None of our lamps have hygge and we definitely need to get some hygge going on in our apartment stat.

“Tax-Free Wealth: How to Build Massive Wealth by Permanently Lowering Your Taxes” by Tom Wheelwright.    Let me be honest from the get go, I haven’t started reading this book yet.  But my defense for not having started this is very understandable – this book is probably going to be really really boring.  I’m just kidding.  Well, maybe not.  I’m not actually sure how interesting a book about taxes will be.  But, since we started doing our own taxes a few years ago, and have actually found a lot of personal satisfaction in the process, I have become more interested in reading about the whole tax process.  So, somehow I came across this book and figured it might be worth a read.  (Oh, and note to self: finish taxes.)

Okay, okay…since we are now at the portion of the book reviews for the books that I actually haven’t started reading yet, let’s just get them all out of the way.  “The Possessions” by Sara Flannery Murphy is my latest arrival from the Book of the Month Club, however, I haven’t picked it up yet.  But…it does look really good.  And based off of the description, I feel totally confident in recommending it.  (I think.)

“You Can Heal Your Life” by Louise L. Hay  is the final book sitting so politely and invitingly on my night table.  I love this book.  Well, let me preface by saying that I really do love anything that is sort of spritual-self-help, make-your-life-better kind of material.  This was a book that my Mom gave me years ago, and that I never read (sorry Mom).  But I am reading it now, I am almost halfway through, and loving it.  It is sort of a guide of, well, as the title says, healing your life – uncovering things of old that might be lurking in your subconscious, and just generally helping you mentally and emotionally clean house.  Louise Hay writes in a very positive and assuring light, leaving me feeling uplifted and ready to conquer the world after just a few short pages.  It’s like a nice deep breath for your soul.

Although my literary plate is definitely full right now, it has actually been the perfect reading weather here in San Diego.  Cold (for us), rainy (for us), and just generally wintery feeling (for us).  Nothing quite like cuddling up to a good book with the fire on, right?  (And yes, I am slightly embarrassed to admit that we do use a fireplace in San Diego.)