I’ve been posting here about the books I have been reading each month. Trying to do it the last Friday of the month. Thought if I committed to posting, I would actually read books. Not. Magazines. or Facebook. Or Instagram.

I started out in January thinking I could read two books a month. I did great in those first two months.

Didn’t happen this month. I started two books! Didn’t finish either.

I only got through a few pages on the first book so I’m not even mentioning the name this month. The second book is “Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 to 2021” by Margaret Atwood. She is one of my favorite writers. The first book I read by her was “The Robber Bride” and when I was finished I said “who is this writer and I must read more!” Since then, I have read the “Maddadams Triology”, “The Handmaid’s Tale”, “ The Testaments”, and “ The Blind Assassin”.

This book is a collection of essays. A lot of the essays were reviews about books I have not read. Or even heard of. Then I had to go out and find out where I could get them and put what I could in my library hold pile. Which made getting through this book even longer. When I realized I would never get all those books read that she was writing about, I just started skipping around to essays I might like.

I read about Alicia Munro. I know I have read something by Alice Munro. I just can’t remember what! That makes me a little crazy. I’m pretty sure I have a book by her, although I can’t find it, and there was a great essay in a magazine. Real Simple? Vanity Fair? Vogue? I will figure that out! And hope to report next month.

Ms. Atwood also had a review of “Dr. Sleep” by Stephen King. She is a fan! I used to have a huge collection of Stephen King’s hard cover books. I lent them to my great-niece to read. Turns out she wasn’t all that great of a great niece—she returned only one. A least it was “The Stand” which is my favorite. To be fair, I did tell her to take her time. But it’s been over ten years so I don’t think those books are coming back! Since I hadn’t yet read “Dr. Sleep” and it is a continuation of “ The Shining”, I had to order the hard cover version from Amazon. Starting my collection back up! That will be one of my books for next month.

While I still have six days left in March, I know I will not finish this book. Ever. I jumped around in the essays and enjoyed the ones I read. I like this quote from one selection.

And I will leave you with that quote.