Friday Coffee Date
Helloooo! The photo above is from my “reading retreat,” which turned out to be a really fun day. You want to hear all about it, RIGHT??? Pour yourself a delicious cup of coffee or tea and I’ll fill you in. The day of my retreat was Wednesday. I don’t like working Saturdays, but I do love having Wednesdays off! I started the morning at the gym, because doesn’t every reading retreat start with some weightlifting? Just kidding… I’m sure most people would skip that part. After that I felt like I earned the right to be lazy for a while. I went to Starbucks, where I sat for almost TWO HOURS, sipping tea and finishing my book. I love it when I sit down to read, knowing that I can read until the book is done. After that I went to Barnes and Noble, where I browsed for a while. Then I got another cup of tea, and sat in the cafe working on my TBR list. When I say TBR, it implies that I have a nice, tidy list. The reality is, when I’ve been saying “I’ll put that on my TBR” it could mean I made a mental note of it, took a screenshot, or put it in my notes app. So now I took the time to go through my notes, the photos on my phone, and my memory (ahem, I don’t recommend that last one!) and made an ACTUAL LIST. In my planner! I’m pretty sure this method will work much, much better. I bought two books, stopped at the library on the way home for a third, and put a hold on one more book. I didn’t want to get too crazy, because one of my new books is a long one and I don’t want a flood of library holds coming in just as I start a 900 page book. The Soji Shimada is a classic in the Japanese locked-room mystery genre, and my library doesn’t have it. I bought the Ken Follett because although I want to read it (Engie has inspired me!) it’s hard for me to commit to starting such a long book. I know I’ll read it if I spent actual money on it! And, the Claudia Gray is the third book in a series written in the style of Jane Austin, where various characters from her books become involved in mysteries. These books are really fun, but there’s absolutely no reason for me to own a copy, and it was available at my library so I snatched it up. Overall it was a great day. I read, I browsed, I thought a lot about books- what I want to read next, how I’m going to schedule my reading for the rest of the summer, what book I want to bring with me to Texas, etc. My reading retreat was a success! What would you tell me over coffee? Does anyone else have a weekday off of work? Have you read any of these books? If you could buy three books right now, what would they be?