At 8:42 AM, it was 53 degrees inside Serenity. I’m very pleased about this, but I sort of wish I had fingerless gloves, because my hands were so cold that I was finding typing un-fun. Still are, in fact, even though it’s almost two hours later and probably ten degrees warmer.
In the first week of March, I read twenty books. I’m not sure I’ve had a more extreme reading binge since childhood, when I basically did nothing but read all summer long. But the library had the first sixteen books by Ngaio Marsh, and then I moved onto their supply of Lisa Gardner, with minor diversions along the way for the new Patricia Briggs, an old Nora Roberts, a rather boring Elizabeth Moon, and a single Tamora Pierce. It is probably a good thing that the library doesn’t have the second 16 books by Ngaio Marsh or I would still be reading. Also probably a good thing that I have to wait my turn for the rest of the Lisa Gardner books: I think she’s got 30 books available, some of which I had previously read, some of which I have on hold now, and the rest of which I read this past week.
Yesterday I finally remembered that I’m supposed to be writing, not reading, and opened up my file for Grace. Well, it had actually been open all week, but every time I looked at it, I winced and turned back to the Libby app instead.
But I think my reading binge was good for me. When I was re-reading Grace in order to get back into writing Grace, I was unexpectedly willing to forgive myself for a lot of my perceived writerly sins, because all of the books that I was reading contained plenty of writerly sins themselves. There’s no such thing as perfect. It isn’t even about being “good enough,” whatever that is. All that really matters is how the reader answers one question: “do you want to keep reading?” And I’m pretty sure that even if Grace never quite makes sense, never has a typical plot, never makes anyone’s heart race, at least a few readers are still going to answer “yes”, because the world is a good place to be and the characters are fun to hang out with.
And now I am going to go hang out with them.
PS All those links are Amazon affiliate links, so if you start your Amazon shopping there, I’ll receive a small percentage of the purchase price of the first item you buy. It won’t make me rich, but come tax time, it will help me justify the contents of my blog as a business expense.
Have to check out Marsh. Not familiar.
She’s classic British mysteries, ala Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Josephine Tey. I honestly think, though, having read plenty of all of those in the last couple years, that she stands the test of time better than most. There’s a little stuff that will make a modern reader wince but not a tremendous amount of it, and her characters are really interesting. I would absolutely read the remaining 16 if they didn’t cost $8 each on Amazon.
Thanks for all the author names — love being able to find new authors to read.
I hope you find someone you like among the list! There’s a lot of variety — one SF, one paranormal, one YA, cozy mysteries and romantic suspense. But if you’re going to start with just one, check your library for Ngaio Marsh. 🙂