Nows and Forevers

How are you doing with your summer reading list?
For the first year since the ill-fated 2020, I began the year with a plan to read no less than 52 books the entire year. I only read a handful in 2020, 2021 and 2022, due to the pandemic and then my own Welsh-language studies, which included reading books in Welsh over most English books.
But now I’m back to English mostly, although I do try to keep my hand in Welsh. I figured one a week wouldn’t be bad, given my schedule. I have been tracking on GoodReads.
The first book for the year is a tip of the hat to the kind of 2023 I envisioned: Anna Quindlen’s “Write for Your Life.” I didn’t know that Quindlen had written a book about writing, although it turned out she had, published in 2022. I felt called to make it the first book I read in the year, given that Quindlen was a favorite author and columnist of my muse, who died in 2022. She would have loved the book.
I’ve been able to keep up, mostly, with 2023’s book-a-week pace, between reading paper books, Kindle books and also audiobooks. It also helps that I have begun to commute four times a week, since since 2020 I wasn’t doing that. (Gotta think of the positives!)
I say mostly, because at the end of the first half of 2022, I’m one book short of my goal.
The good thing is that I’m going to be on vacation most of the first two weeks of July, so I should be able to catch up. I’m planning on doing a lot of reading and writing.