Twenty-five years ago, when I first showed up at college, I immediately pored over the academic calendar. “Reading week!” I exclaimed, imagining seven solid days of curtailed classes and assignments. We’d all sit around on bean bag chairs, sipping hot chocolate, gorging on pizza, and reading silently. Now and then one of us would share an amusing tidbit, then we’d all return to our books.

Unfortunately, the reality was very different. First of all, reading “week” was only two or three days long. Second, the period occurred right before finals, so our time was spent frantically poring over class notes while reciting our school’s unofficial mantra under our breath. “Anywhere else it would have been an A….”

Fast forward ahead to the present, and I sent Charmed Wolf off to the beta reader last week. Pre-pandemic, I used to spend those two weeks filling my brain with different ideas via travel before starting to brainstorm the subject matter of my next book.

Travel isn’t currently advisable, but reading — especially the non-fiction that tends to pile up on my shelf waiting for my attention — can transport me while feeding the bubbling soup of my imagination. So I decided to recreate the Reading Week that naive frosh imagined in 1996.

To that end, I’ll be curled up on the couch each morning this week, in front of our wood stove with zero to two cats plus some dark-chocolate-covered almonds and clementines (my current snacks of choice). I’ll fall into my kindle and, when something interesting jumps out at me, I’ll come over here and share tidbits on my blog. Stay tuned!