New Year's Resolution

     Once again it is time to do the annual task of making a New Year's resolution.  Not everyone seems to use this opportunity to set a goal for personal growth but it has always provided me with a way to improve in one specific area each year.  My goals are not large in most years but I do take some satisfaction with improving in one specific area each year.
      So this year's resolution is to learn how to speed read.  Reading is one of the things I most enjoy to do.   I learned how to "skim read" in college but this time I want to want to increase the number of books I can read.  It is frustrating to have more books that I want to read than I have time.  Often I can't finish a book in the time I have for a book on reserve from the library.   I frequently have 2 or 3 books to read at the same time.  I will be using You Tube videos and other online sources to develop this skill.
     I am always amazed at how few people are readers.  One survey in 2003 had these results:

• One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
• 42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.
• 80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.
• 70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
• 57 percent of new books are not read to completion.

    I am not sure of these figures but I am confident that with today's media distractions reading time has diminished once schooling ends.  

P.S.
    Losing weight and exercising more always seem to be the most common resolutions and the most frequently broken.  Here is a list of the top ones. 

P.S. 1
    Yesterday's winter sun and clouds stopped me on a drive home and I tried to capture some photos of the lighting with my smartphone.