rewind

I've been on a mission to read as much as possible, and a few things have really helped that mission along: Kindle, vacations, summer hiatus for TV shows, and the mobile library van. Also, once I got in the habit of reading more, and started meeting and exceeding my goals, it became hard to stop. I have to admit that I slowed down for a while, though, when my reading choices started getting really heavy. I was reading a lot of long, dark books about the Holocaust and serial killers and civil war, and they were well-written and thoroughly researched, but sometimes, it's hard to push yourself through several 500-page books about how terrible people are and how much evil can happen to good people. I'm glad I read them, and I know I'll be going back to those kinds of books in the fall, perhaps, but for now, while it's summer and everything is made of sunshine and breezes, I'm going through a decided backlash, and my last few books were written for children. I love kiddie lit -- everything makes sense, things never get too complicated, and everything always turns out OK in the end. (And also, the books are so quick and easy that my tally is going up really quickly. It's not cheating, as long as the books are over 150 pages. That's my rule, and I'll stand behind it).