Mary's Story: Reading 1,000 Books in Retirement!

This bonus episode includes a conversation with Mary Taylor who accomplished the impressive goal of reading 1,000 books in retirement. We hope you enjoy her reflection on this amazing journey and the powerful lessons she learned along the way. Enjoy!

Kevin: Well, Mary, I'm so excited to speak with you today. Thank you for agreeing to come and talk with me a little bit. 

Mary: My pleasure. 

Kevin: So I'm excited to hear a little bit more about this goal that you set for yourself that I have heard you've just recently accomplished.  Tell me a little bit about the goal and what gave you the idea of setting this goal? 

Mary: I had taught school for almost 40 years and retired in June of four. And people would say, are you going to travel? And I said, do I have to go someplace? And it was like, what do I want to do? In my and what I had in mind was a calm, peaceful existence. When I thought about what would be really calm and I don't live a real exciting life.  My house is pretty calm already, but I was working and go, I have a lot of different dress, so I was going, going and doing things. So I said just being home was a good book and. That's what I wanted to do. But I made a couple of goals that were more formal. I said, you know, I live just three or 4 miles from the beach. I want to go every week down the beach, maybe take my and go to the beach every week. And I think I'll go out to lunch once a week. I rarely do that, those things. I thought it sounds like what other people would do, I guess. But then I don't even know if I was talking to anybody or just myself. 

Mary: But without any discussion, I said, I want to read 1000 books in my retirement. Just like that. And it wasn't like, oh, no, that's crazy. No, I had read, but I have never had the time to read long periods. And to me, the thought of just being in my home, my feet up and a good book, I just thought it sounded wonderful. And so that's what I started doing is reading. I didn't read nonstop, but I did read more than I'd ever read before. And time, it just kept adding up. Now, what I did, because I was talking to a friend the other day and he said, I bet I've read over 1000 books. I said, I'm sure you had. Did you ever keep track of? Never thought to do that. Well, I did. So I had this little book, and so every book from the Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck was the first. Every one of them had the author of the book and the date. 

Mary: One reason is I was probably forget if I'd read them or not. And it just started adding up. Now, if I had known it was really going to be so serious thing for me, I would have given myself a little bit more room for more detail, like a plus or minus or even a synopsis. That would have been nice. But I kept track, and it ended up being 40 pages of 25 book books a page. What? I've been thinking, okay, what have I read? What is contained in those thousand books? So I just started writing down. I started going through those lists, and I'm not finished at all. But like foreign books or humor or celebrities, tons of autobiographies and biographies, historical pages of pages, social like trans kids. 

Mary: Boy Erased, In Our Hearts We Were Giants. And then I made a list of my favorite authors because they're about 15 out of all of those writers that I consider just near genius. Not everyone, but few of them are just so brilliant. And a couple of them, especially when I open their book, I get this I'm home feeling. It's just so close to me what they say. And I can truly get lost in reading these wonderful books that people can come up with. Now, let me tell you something. When I was a student, teacher in the wrote a little poem for my kids in the third grade, although I always taught kids with special needs after that, but. I wrote this little poem. 

Mary: Fly a jet, sail, you bet. Wrestle a lion if you choose. Just pick up a book and take a good look. These things can happen to you. Now, I wrote that to inspire them. But here it is, 2023. It has inspired me through the years, that little thing. 

Mary: Yeah. You can be all over the world without going. You can learn about different cultures. And I love to read about Asian authors, Irish authors, a lot of British writers, people who are much older than me, people who are much younger than me, all in between. People who don't believe the way I believe. And it expands my awareness of this world. And I'm 80 years old now, so I'm looking back and realizing that there's so much to learn. And now it seems so little time. I'm really grateful to God that he put this in my heart. And I believe he did. Because I didn't go to the beach every week. I didn't go out to eat with a friend, because that wasn't really what I wanted to do. What I wanted to do was explore the world. And that's what I did in my own home, through written words. And because I had taught reading so long and I say this once in a while, I just hope the kids that I taught love to read the way I do, because I know what it does for me. There's just so much to tell.

Mary: That's so amazing. Mary, I really love that idea of reading making you feel at home, but also being the thing that helps you transcend your home to explore the world through literature. Tell me a little bit about well, first, how long did it take you to accomplish this goal of reading 1000 books? 

Mary: Well, I started reading June of as soon as I retired three. And then I have just read through the years and my son was figuring it out. He said, Well, mom, you read about a book a week. It kind of being that way. But in truth, some weeks I might read three. It's all according to the size and to the interest level. Now, the biggest book I read other than the Bible, and I read the Bible through three times, and the Bible is a big book, 66 books, but I only counted as one, and that was three times. But the biggest book, and one of the most impactful books that I ever read was Andersonville. It kind of shook me to my core as a Southern woman, or was for a long time. Now I'm a Southern California woman, but during the Civil War, it just really taught me a lot I'd never been taught. And so my son had given it to me, telling me what a great book it was. And it started a new interest in me, civil War veteran, also in very interested in World War II because that's when I was born in 42. And so I've read a lot of books about women in the military, especially fascinated with the women pilots. They were given very little credit, but. Incredible things. There's one. The Air Transport auxiliary. I'd never heard of it. Those women and some men, but mostly women, would fly wherever they needed an airplane. If they had it there, they would fly that airplane to get it where it was needed. Some lost their lives doing it. They sacrificed so much. I read about the nurses who were in the working for the government, these Auxiliary Transport Auxiliary. I got it wrong. But anyway, they're called Attigirls Attigirls because kind of a fun thing. 

Mary: And then I read about the world wars, the Resistance, the people in the Resistance who put their lives on the line to see what was going on, what the enemy was up to, and what they could do to change that and direct it. It's just some marvelous reading, so informative and educational to me, because I know that at my age, I think I've had a decent education. I have my master's degree. I've been a student through the years. But there's a lot I didn't know about something that I feel that everyone should know. Right. We just don't know these things. The history. The true history. Sure. And so it's kind of like being in a room full of desserts. You just go, what am I going to enjoy today? So reading is that it brings it to you, and you have to have an eight year old granddaughter. And when I got toward the end of the goal, the last ten or something, I was at their house and I was saying. Give me a book. Bring me a book to read. I want to read the book. And I said, I'm only, like, ten away. She said, Grammy, you said you did not read for the numbers. She never forgets. I said you are right. I haven't through the years, I haven't read so that I could put down a number. But I said, now that I'm so close, I just want to enjoy every book to the max. Wow. So one of the things I did when I got closer, closer, I went back to some of my favorite books in the past, pulled them out and reread them. And they count as a book because they're still a book. I don't skip through it or scan it. I skim it through it. I read it. So some of my favorite books got reread. And I don't know, it's just a great experience. 

Mary: And someone said to me, you can just now make them smaller, increments, like maybe 100 at a time. I said, I don't need to set anything else. I have a comp now. I've already read seven more books, and I just put it my book is 1000 plus, and I'm adding to it. But I say, no pressure, just pleasure. So that's what I'm getting out of this now, and I'm really thankful. There's so many inspirational books. I've read some of the leaders of our belief system from way back when, and they may sound stilted, and they may not sound the language you use today as much, but the truth of the word is in there. Who knows about Smith Wigglesworth, Oswald Chambers, Hudson Taylor? Some of these CS. Lewis, of course. Miles Monroe. So many people. That I have a list of all of these different ones and more to go. I just started this last night looking through this and I have all of this already, what I have read and I read a lot about animals, specifically dogs, because I had a couple of dogs I love very much and I've read, like I said, very inspirational of read Bible three times. It actually should be four because I read the book, I think the book and it's the Bible, but in like conversational. I don't know how you describe that, but it was very good too. But I don't know, I guess it reaffirms that I did something well in this life. Those children who had such problems learning, if I actually helped give them the gift of reading, their world would be clearer and they would have fly a jet, wrestle alliance, whatever books then I feel pretty good. That is the accomplishment. And I don't even call the experiment just what I did with my life. Some people imagine I just read all that long. What I do is I turn the TV off at 09:00 and reading time so I was getting really 12:00 was not unusual. 

Mary: A lot of nights that I would read and then I said, all right, you need to cut back on the time. But it just dedicated time to reading. I think that is when you set a goal, you have to have some way of accomplishing it right. It's not going to just do itself and. But I didn't sit down and go, how many books do I have to read this week to make it? It just worked out, right? It'd be about 50 at a time. And then I say, oh, well, look at that. I'd tell my son, hey, I've read 400 books. Way to go, mom. And then I told him, my dad said, Well, I know through the years I've been telling you how many books I've read. And I said that probably was boring. He said, no, I'm really proud of you. Not necessarily something to be proud of. It's kind of selfish in one way and yet in another way it's not because I think it's made me a better person. 

Mary: Yeah, it opens your mind up to the world and other people and experiences things that you wouldn't have learned otherwise. I believe God works through whatever means that available to us and to him. I feel good about it. I'll just say that feel like I wasted time. I explored the world through books anyway. And I have two questions that you basically already began to answer. 

Mary: So I'm going to use part of your answer already to these questions. But if you want to fill in any additional information, the first question is this what are some of the highlights of all of these books that you've read over the years? What are some of the high points of your experience with reading 1000 books?

Mary: I don't think it was necessarily the amount of the number of books that was not really it. It was the individual books that I cross that would speak to me and inform me, educate me, entertain me. I love humor. Some of these books I laugh out loud and. For you. It's like getting an internal massage when you anyway, love that. And a lot of I found out through all these autobiographies and biographies that a lot of the people I thought I admired an awful lot read their lives from them when they talk. Of course they're not writers. But at the same time they kind of spilled everything. And I came with some of them thinking, I don't believe we'd be friends. I don't admire you as much as I thought I did. People really can open up. And I think that's good too, that we have more real expectation of people and not hold it to such a high standard that they're just people like us. But then again, some of them really showed interest in humanity and social works. Right now I'm reading it's supposed to be the definitive book of Abraham Lincoln long and it's taking me a while to read it. But it is so enlightening from Lincoln. He'd been gone a long time. I thought I knew him. 

Mary: I didn't know him. He was the very man that I thought. And then the autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt I have admired through the years for her work with civil rights and women's rights and knowing the large struggles. And I've read other books by her and one of them is called this World. And I'm shaking her head. This world. And she's gone a while, so she should see it now. But anyway, I think it's the individual books and like I said, discovering writers like the Irish writer Mave Benchy Love. Mave Benchy. She passed a few years ago, and it hurt me because I said, oh, no, she has more stories to tell, and just some of those individual people like that. And I'm sure later I'll think of things that I'm not thinking of to tell you right now. 

Mary: Excellent. And then you also were sharing about how you would shut off the TV at 09:00 that would help carve out the space and time for you to read. So based on that answer, I wonder this is my question: What are some of the lessons that you learned throughout this journey that helped you to keep this goal that you set for yourself? What are some of the practices, some of the habits that you created that helped you to accomplish this goal? 

Mary: Well, I think there were times that I didn't read as much because I got distracted in that time that I'd set aside, I started playing backgammon, just obsessed. Loved it. Loved it. And I realized it was taking, and I had to stop because I realized it was consuming my time, and I didn't feel I was getting back from it. And so I had to stick with it and mainly always remember to record the book. And I also reviewed probably by now, probably around 400 books, so Amazon.com. So after I would read a book, I would take time right then, most of the time, and think about how did I like that book? What could I suggest for someone else, whether I would encourage them to read it? What were the main things? If I really loved it, how can I say that to other people? And. Almost the same number of people have said that it helped them. So I did that. And I think that helped me too, because it was an extension of the reading. So for me it was multiple. It was the taking time, letting down. This is time that I'm going to read. Not like, oh no, I have to read. That was never the case. I never that was not it was a pleasure to read. So I think, keeping in mind enjoy the journey. Enjoy the journey. When I look at these books, it amazes me. Some of these books that I've read so long ago, and they're terrific, but some of them I don't really know. And if I had to tell you what it was about, I'd have to look at the book or read. There are too many of them. But at the same time, when I read them, I go, oh yeah, I remember that. I think enjoy what you're doing. 

Mary: If it is a real pain, man, now, right now I'm trying to get back into doing some exercise more. I guess these are goals now that I haven't I've always everybody wants to lose weight, everybody wants to exercise more. And so I've tried to get into more of a routine. And I think routine helps a lot. And that was twelve or eleven. That was a routine I got into. And by going, I was going to turn the TV off at eleven. At 09:00 I was set to VCR. So I knew that I don't have to see it first time around. This is the joy of this. Because when I was young and I went to a class and I said, someday you'll be able to. Go forward and not have to watch the commercials. And I go, that we would be able to do, and you'll be able to buy movies on there. What, am I going to put money in my TV? We have such an advantage now. And someone might wonder why I didn't go to the library more. I guess because I didn't want to have to go back and forth so much. And just quickly here, I started buying a lot of books. A lot of the books I've read were from Goodwill. I bought Hardback books, about 18 I'm putting the black there on my bookshelf. About 18 Books of John Grisham. Hardback books. I was trying to read every one of his, and they were so cheap, but they doubled their price. So they doubled their price. I go, well, maybe I need to look around. So I'm finding different ways to get books. Friends belong to a book club, so she gave me the current books, which some of them I didn't care for, but a lot of them were really good because books I've read through BookBub on kindle on BookBub are years old, so they've been on the bestseller list. I know how many people have given them 5000 stars and all that. It still costs, but the price is so much smaller. I'm I'll pay $2 for one. A lot of them are a dollar, and some they give you free, or if I'm really anxious, I'll pay a little more. 

Mary: But when so many, it adds up. And there are books, free books, but. It's all according to what you want. And that's something, too, in setting a goal. What do you want to get out of it? If you're just reading, like my granddaughter said, to put down a number, don't do it. It's not worth it because you're putting your time and your mind. Some of the books I would start and I'd go, Life's too short to read this.

Mary: Yeah. I was going to ask you, were there books that you started that you decided to stop reading? 

Mary: Just stopped. Now, one of them I actually reviewed and said, this is more than one, but one I read recent, I was so shocked when I opened it and saw some I'm not comfortable with the F word flying around all over a page. I'm just not -- I was so shocked at this young woman doing this that I thought, no. And so the review I gave on Amazon.com and I don't know if they put it on, I hadn't checked, was not for me. This may be for some people, but not for me. I can't take that kind of language, but I would like to see what the author could do without that component. But again, I added, I'm not saying it verbatim, but that I know there's a lot of people that she was writing to that are perfectly fine with the language she said, their culture, but it's not mine. 

Mary: As a Christian. I don't talk like that. I don't want to read words that are going to pop up in my head. I figure if they pop up here, they're going to pop out here. This would be destroyed. I don't want it. And some were just boring. One was so goofy that I just go, oh, I know this is written for a teenage boy. This cannot be written for an eighty year old woman. 

Mary: So if it's reading books you're after. Know what you like and then go for that, I guess in any like, why didn't I go to the ocean once a week? Why didn't I go out to lunch last time? Those were things I thought I would like to do. But there were reasons. Obviously I didn't do it. I mean, I'm so close. I used to go to the ocean and draw and watercolor and everything. And I love having the ocean there. There's something about that. I don't have to see it. I know it's there. I'm pointing to the now and I don't know. See, that's something I may consider. Why? Because I'm evaluating now I've reached that goal. I'm still reading, but I figure there's a lot more I can learn about myself from my books, my reactions to the book. So I think if you can set a goal that's not complete in itself, but that it has branches from it that will lead you in other areas, that that's a good thing, right? And it can be a much greater thing than just accomplishing that single thing. 

Kevin: And so, last question. You've again, already sort of answered this, but I'll leave it open for you to share anything else that you're wanting to share. The topic of this next podcast is focused on this idea of setting resolutions and goals, as we have a tradition of doing every New Year. What advice do you have for our listeners who may be setting goals for this next year? What advice do you have for them about setting and keeping the goals that they make?

Mary: Well, don't buy a big exercise size machine. It's only going to hold your clothes. Make them realistic. Make them something that you can see that it's attainable. Don't make it so hard for yourself underscored a little bit. If you really want to reach 100 or something, try 50 and then later you reach up to 60. Maybe go for 70 and then try. But don't make it so hard when know yourself. Don't pressure yourself because someone else is going to know. God's going to know, you're going to know. But just don't try to please other people through your goals. Very personal thing. I don't think you should write too many goals to keep it simple. Two or three probably enough, but make meaningful, attainable and hopefully pleasurable. But it's something you can look back on and say, yeah, I used to not do that. 

Mary: Now I kind of like working out. I did not ever like working out because I go and I walk around the block with my neighbor. I never drew that. Yet I've gotten to know her better than I ever have. So if you can get something out of it that adds to it, don't make it. We have enough pressure on ourselves. We have to give ourselves some slack. Take good care of yourself mentally, socially, emotionally. And when you go around the block, if you don't have that neighbor with you and sometimes if you do, you can talk to God. And that is really wonderful thing to do. And just real quickly, I may have told you this sometime in my life, but I was walking one day down my neighborhood, in my neighborhood, and I said, can't talk out loud. You do that, you get older. I said, you say we should have a mission field. Where's my mission field? My mind or impressed on my heart was "right here". Where? The Lord led me into being a neighborhood watch person. 

Mary: I got to know all those people up and down when my little dog came along. I got to know all dog walkers. And suddenly I knew my mission field and I could send out emails to everybody and encourage them and give them hope and be be someone they could turn to and give them good, solid information they could use in time of need. So I really believe in prayer and asking God to lead you. This is the most recent thing has happened to me, I guess. And I have to tell you, New Year's Eve, there were about six or seven of us, family members, my son's in laws, really, and just young people. And we went around the group asking what did we want to accomplish? And they're young and someone, I'm going to study harder, I'm going to do this, or they all had theirs, of course. They looked at me and said, Grammy, how about you? And kind of tongue in cheek, I said, I'm going to tell as many people as I can that I've read 1000 books. You called me and asked, Kathy, "could you talk about your thousand books?" And I go lord, you work fast. 

Kevin: That's right. We heard your prayer. That's right. That's something. We're so proud of you, Mary, and we love you so much and we're celebrating you and looking forward to hearing more about your reflection on this amazing accomplishment. 

Mary: Thank you, Kevin. I love you all too.