I have been scouring my house for the books of my past — everyone’s bringing at least one childhood favorite to next month’s book club meeting.

Everyone member of our house has at least one bookshelf and many of my books have been passed from my shelves to theirs.

So as I pile up my favorites, will I be able to whittle them down to one? Right now I’ve got three of my favorites on my nightstand — “Favorite Poems of Emily Dickinson,” “I never saw another butterfly,” and “The Little Prince” in both French and English. I’ve also tossed my two-year-old’s favorite book, “Wherever You Are my love will find you,” on the pile, though it’s unlikely to stay there long as my daughter and I read it several times a day.

My Binding Moments book club friends were joking I would have a tote bag full of books next meeting. Though I always have a tote bag with me, they are correct that next month’s will be full — so many childhood memories in so many books.

This morning’s discovery: I love lists.

Yes, I have succumbed to this digital age.

I still love to hold the newspaper — well a brilliant, quality newspaper when I can find one — in my hands. I relish in the scent of the library, the energy of being surrounded by thousands upon thousands of books. I prefer a hardcover to an e-file most any day.

But in my heart-of-hearts, I find I can not function exclusively that way any more and keep up.

As part of my Happiness Project checklist (http://happinessprojecttoolbox.com/) I promised myself I would spend about 15 minutes each day scanning the news, my Twitter (www.twitter.com/myarichards) and my Google reader, which is full of valuable professional resources I’d do well to peek at once in a while. (The writing community is such a richly wonderful place.)

A lofty set of goals wrapped into one. Most days I can manage this for several key reasons.

1. The goal is time restricted. It’s only 15 minutes of my day. Granted I don’t have but 15 seconds to spare most days between teens, a toddler and a writing life, but 15 minutes is definitely doable. (And you’ll all note I excluded Facebook from my goal, because in all honesty, I’m going to check in with my friends there every other day or so regardless.)

2. I use technology to my advantage. My favorite app? By leaps and bounds, Pulse news reader. I recorded my goals on the Happiness Toolbox website. I read other writers’ blogs via RSS on Google reader. I scan Twitter to see what other people are reading and discussing.

3. When I do choose to read something in longer form, 99 percent of the time I choose something written in list format. It goes a little something like this: topic intro/backstory, list of key points, sign off. I can easily scroll down to the list to find out if I really want to read the whole thing or to skip the backstory if I’m at a frantic loss for time.

The take away? As a reader I am drawn to lists. Maybe other readers are too? It’s obviously not the only way to go, but for now, I’m a fan. Writing like this will likely open up your readership.

Have tips for organizing and managing your reading/writing? Please share!

Best in writing and everything,

Mya