We all need a hobby. Do 100 of something

My son is old enough now that I can think about myself again.

People without children will see that statement and either not understand it, or they will try to tell me about an article they once read which explains how you are supposed to carve out time for yourself even when you have a baby. 

Let's move on.

So, I gave myself two goals this year. The first was to start running consistently and get up to 30 minutes of run time. (More on that later.) The other was to read 100 books this year.
The book idea stems from a Slate article by Jeff Ryan about his resolution to complete 365 books in a year. That seemed a bit much for me, so I scaled it back to 100. My rules were a bit different than his:

1. No audiobooks.
2. Try to read one serious book for every fluff book.

So far, I am on schedule to finish my 100 before the end of the year. Because I am crazy/organized, I select my books based on authors. This has led me to learn that there are some authors that should be read at once and others that have redundancy problems.
For example, Maeve Binchy is a prolific Irish writer whose books explore the same village. When reading her works, you start to recognize background characters as the protagonists from other books. It gives you the feeling that you know everyone else's business, just like what you think a real Irish village would be like in the 1960s.

But Nikki French, an amazing husband-and-wife writing team, has a repetition problem in which most of the female characters complain about being in desperate need of a bath.
But the point is, I read. It is solitary and wonderful and had a surprising benefit. My son sees me reading and he wants to read more, too. That is a beautiful thing.