I’ve been in a reading slump.

It’s not that I’m not reading at all.

A few years back I got a good deal on a subscription to The New Yorker, and since I get an educator discount I’ve kept that up.

So each week I read that - a good dose of news, entertainment, fiction, humor.

But a book? Other than the book reviews in The New Yorker - not a lot lately.

I keep track of what I read each year, since I can’t really remember what I thought about something I read or sometimes even whether I read something or not.

I got off to a good start early last year. The biggest chunk of time in the early part of 2024 I spent reading all 7 books in The Chronicles of Narnia…I definitely had not read the whole series before. (I was always a big fan of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe growing up so I think the fact that the other books didn’t directly involve those characters always bothered me a bit.) (I did like the entire series as a whole. It was a little preachy at times. I’d have to review my notes to give you more comprehensive feedback. BUT THAT’S NOT WHY WE’RE HERE TODAY. Sorry for yelling. OK. On with it.)

I hit a dead end before summer and just never found another book to read. And to be honest, I didn’t try that hard.

But now I’d like to get back to reading a book.

It helps my writing when I read good writing.

So you can help - I would love these postings to be somewhat interactive, and here’s an opportunity for that. If you have suggestions, put them in the comments below here, or reach out to me on social media. The links are at the end of this post. (I’ve probably put a solicitation out on my Instagram Story by the time you see this too.)

I think if you’re looking for a genre for the suggestion I’d go with fiction. I always find a way to get in some non-fiction reading - I read a lot of memoir and biography (see picture above) and history and running - and this year I’ll be doing that as I think about my running training - but you can give me some suggestions and keep me from the aimless walk through the library stacks grabbing something that may or may not be good.

OK. Great. Thanks. As my goals go, I’d say this one falls into the ‘pretty achievable’ category.