I’m guessing I’m not alone in that my reading life ebbs and flows. I can go through long periods during which I barely read at all. In fact, I’m kind of in a reading slump right now.

I count myself along the myriad who fell in love with Mary Oliver in recent years. Her poetry is a buoy when I feel overcome by the dark storms of living.

I posted that fancy picture of me in Room 135, a recording studio at WPSU (where I used to work). I spent HOURS in that studio (sometimes in the middle of the night — creepy because one side of the wall is essentially a window to the lobby). A number of friends asked me if I was renting studio space for my podcast project and I laughed out loud.

Nope. I am recording my podcast in my closet.

In short, I often don’t, which is why I made it a goal last summer to find ways to make things stick. It seems like a lost opportunity to spend so much time reading without actually retaining what I read!

I listened to a bunch of podcasts and read a couple of books last summer about how to improve long-term memory. Here’s what I learned (much of which I’ve shared with my students):

I’ve been feeling a little restless lately. While I love my current job, I miss feeling a sense of completion, of creativity, of risk-taking.

I posted my roundup of my 2018 favorites on Facebook and was surprised by the influx of questions not about the books, per se, but about my reading life. I thought I'd post a few of them here because I love hearing other people's thoughts on this!