Can I Walk You Through a Hypothetical?

My, oh, my, I can't believe we're nearing the end of September. I feel like a broken record at this point, but I've had one crazy reading month and one good reading month, and we're ending on a good note, guys, so cheers to that!

I've managed a blackout on Bingo Card #1, for one, so let me celebrate this the next few sentences by saying that I never could have imagined reading this much in a little over half a year. Reading has been one of my more atrophied muscles, and I remember when I started really reading again some time during the pandemic that finishing a single book took me a month of trying. I vividly remember starting this journey with Joan Didion's A Year of Magical Thinking, and I was fortunate to have fallen in love with reading again after such a long time. I also remember being actively disappointed whenever my attention would inevitably wane. And, of course, I remember this odd little lift in my heart when I actually finished the book (aside from the crushing heartache over the subject matter).

The next year, I grew ambitious. I was capable of reading a book a month, so obviously, why wouldn't I be able to read a book a week? And while I fell super short of that target (I only ended up reading 15 out of my targeted 52), I'd also begun to notice that, like muscles put to practice, I suddenly had better strength and endurance. I went from needing a month to finish A Year of Magical Thinking to needing a month to finish Frank Herbert's Dune. I went from reaching for my phone every five minutes to reading until dawn because I couldn't stand to put my book away. It was good. It was progress.

And here we are—the end of September 2023. Earlier this year, I decided to do a Book Bingo Card, setting myself up to with a target of 25 books for the year. It's been a bit of a wild ride. I am currently 29 books in and plan to keep going to see how far I can take this number by the end of the year.

( Here be bingo cards, fills and one more reading-related anecdote. )