Chapter 23 - The Dry

So for the last five plus years I have been a reading machine, routinely finishing 3 to 4 books a week. I love to read, enjoy traveling to other times and places, as well as meeting new people in books. That's why it took me so by surprise that in late April, early May I suffered a dry spell. (Audience gasp!)

Like any other habit, once you stop reading it is easy to not read and...like any other habit once you stop it is very hard to start going again. For someone who makes their living by reading and talking about books this was a very big and hard hurdle for me to jump. I won't say I was in activity avoidance exactly but reading was not my "go to" activity during that time span. While I have read enough books in the last five years that it didn't prevent me from writing or talking about books, I knew I needed to get back to it or I would fritter away my time watching TV or playing games on my Kindle.

I won't go into the reasons I had this dry spell but I knew it had to stop. So here, my friends, were the things I did to get my out of my non-reading doldrums.

1. I read books I had to read to write reviews, for book club, or because an author asked if I would read his/her book and give input.

2. I updated my book log with the books I actually had read. (It was more than I thought so I felt some excitement about that!)

3. I read new books that just came out and are all the talk.

4. I re-read a childhood favorite which took only a few hours (no it was not Hop on Pop!).

Without further ado, here were some winners from my dry spell which put me back on track.

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis - This wonderful fantasy by Lewis has all the elements of a good read - heroes, villains, quests, and at the end good wins out. Reading it as an adult was a joy and as C.S. Lewis himself stated, "A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest."

A Pledge of Silence by Flora J. Solomon - Solomon, who has another book coming out in July, wrote this about nurses who became POWs in the Philippines during World War II. The heroine struggles all her life to recover from the scars received during that time and ultimately works through the pain. This book is definitely worth a read.

Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston - Hurston was a ethnographer and anthropologist and part of her research was to collect stories from African American culture. Along the way she met Cudjo Lewis, a man who was on the last slave transport to the US in 1859. This is his story, told in his words but transcribed and annotated by Hurston. Oddly enough once I finished it there were several news items about Lewis and other slaves on the last ship.

Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be by Rachel Hollis - This has generated quite a buzz in the Personal Growth world and since I hadn't read it I thought I would. It was good as Hollis is a lifestyle blogger as well as mother of four children. It is definitely meant for a younger audience.

The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke by Andrew Lawler - Andrew Lawler sent this book as he will be on a book tour this summer and wanted to see if he could do an author talk and signing in the store. Lawler's book reads like a good mystery novel. In it there are heroes and villains, people who withhold information, those with get rich schemes and those who use The Lost Colony concept and Virginia Dare specifically to promote their own political agenda. Lawler's hypothesis about what happened is as viable as any other that has been previously offered.

How do you get over the hump of a dry spell? Please let me know! You can order these or other books at www.bookendsonline.com.