For the longest, I have been complaining that libraries here in Italy don't have good selections, not to mention books in other languages, nor ebooks to borrow. It all felt unfair to me and I have been busy being grumpy for more than I'd like to admit. Until I received a free month of Kindle Unlimited and I downloaded a couple of books for free.
When your Kindle Unlimited subscription ends, your free ebooks get automatically deleted from your account. So it works pretty much like the library, you can extend your holding time by extending your Kindle Unlimited subscription. Well, I found the whole thing very stressful.
First of all, I'm a slow reader. Second of all, I'm a mood reader. And so I discovered that this doesn't go well with monthly deadlines. I was constantly torn by wanting to read what I was in the mood for (maybe a seasonally-themed book) and wanting to read as many free ebooks as possible to be able to ‘make the most’ of my subscription. But then, once I was starting the books, I could only think that I had to rush through them in order to be able to finish them in time. I can't even describe the stress when I was a week from my expiring subscription date!
Isn't it funny how we manage to create all these additional to-do lists in our head?
This experience made me realise that I'm not missing out on not having a well-stoked library close by. At least not for the reasons I thought I would (free books) because I can't deny that the whole experience is very pleasant, I've worked in a library myself, after all!
This reflection made me wonder how many things in life we often envy and feel like we are missing out on without realising that they would not be for us, after all. It's a bit like social media highlights, I may feel jealous for someone showing their tropical cruise but then I may realise that I would have never liked that for myself.
But regarding books, this doesn't mean that I will never subscribe to Kindle Unlimited anymore in the future, it just means that I will try to use it more mindfully and with a 'less is more' attitude rather than a 'bargain hunter' kind of one!
Are you a mood reader too? Do you struggle with deadlines too?
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