About the Blogger

One of my favorite things about graduating from school was being able to read for fun, without having to worry about doing book reports anymore. Kind of a funny start for a book blogger, isn't it?

I read "all the time" while I was growing up, and then either "for school" or "for fun" as I got older. After a few dark years as a grown up where I barely read anything at all, the advent of digital books helped to bring reading back into my life. It was also helpful to discover "holds" at the library, both for getting a wider variety of books and for making it faster to get them, once the books are ready for pickup. In 2019, I learned some crucial lessons about reading, for me:

1. I need to read. Reading=brain food. Life without reading: not good. I know. I've tried it.
2. Reading random things on the internet is not as good for my brain as actual books (whether digital or paper).
3. Reading only "for fun" is unsustainable for me. Intentional variety is not only sustainable, but also a lot more fun than I ever expected. 
4. About three books a month is my "baseline" for keeping my brain going.
5. It's not always easy, but I can make reading time happen, and it's worth it. 

I set a goal to read 30 books in 2019. I used Goodreads to help me figure out what sort of reading rate I already had and set the goal to be a little stretch from that. For the first time ever, I made a conscious effort to actively vary my reading, moving among fiction genres and trying to always have at least one non fiction book to read in snippets. I purposely kept multiple books "in progress" at once so that I would never have to think "I'm done, now what?" as I often did in the past when reading one book at time. Book endings felt less like "the end of the world" with another world ready to slip into. Long story short, I hit my goal in early May and kept on reading. I hit 90 books in mid December and wondered if I could make 100, and I did! I went from thinking there wasn't much to read and no time to read it, to realizing I could choose abundance both in material to read and time to do it, as long as I continued to actively make those choices.

I am personally very conservative, and I appreciate squeaky clean reads. Life, however, is not usually squeaky clean, and some of the best stories come with PG or higher content. Much of my life has included adolescent readers in my home, and I often consider if and when I would feel good about them reading my selections. I may occasionally offer content advisories with my reviews, but I do not guarantee them. This is a hobby for me, after all.

This blog is intended to be a record of my reading and a small thank you to authors for the hours of enjoyment that they bring me through their labors.