Welcome to readers of the Readers' Advisor Online blog.
Citizen Reading: 27 June 2016

So here's what we're going to do.

Well, it's been a bit of a time, frankly.

First off: Hello. I'm sorry it's been a while. Whenever I take a break from blogging, I feel instant relief. I can just read! I don't have to track it, write about it, think about how to write about it! Bliss! But I always find that I really miss blogging in very short order. Or, I should say, I miss conversing. The best part of this blog, for me, is checking in periodically to see if you are commenting and what you are saying. I have had so many thoughtful, interesting conversations here. I spent a little time this month going back and reading some much older posts and comments--and laughed all over again to see the fun.

So what's up? Well, I've not really felt myself for some time. I've been reading--almost nothing stops me from reading--but for a long time I have not felt like writing about the books I've been reading. Mainly because 2015 was a sucktastic void of a year. I came up against my midlife crisis in 2015 and it won. Never before had I ever felt so old. Never before had I felt so physically, mentally, and emotionally lousy. Never before had I felt so fundamentally unlike any self I had ever been comfortable with or wanted to be.

And then my dad died.

Okay, 2015, I could have done without that.

Now, am I being melodramatic about 2015? Am I being just like my two-year-old son when he screams the house down because he doesn't get to eat a delicious buttery cracker* RIGHT NOW? Well, of course. I'm not young, so you know my dad wasn't overly young. He lived a great life. He received the gift of a quick death that millions of suffering people all over the world are praying for right at this moment. I can't really be bitter about either my dad's life or his death.

But still. I keep finding I just don't feel like doing anything, and I think deep down part of that is about missing my dad. And aging. And all that good stuff. Come to think of it, I could go for a good delicious buttery cracker.

But I think I need 2016 to be better. And I think that's going to require me returning to being Citizen Reader. Are you in? First order of business is to set up some sort of title awareness/reading news weekly post, to replace the Reader's Advisor Online blog, which I miss writing (and reading). Further bulletins as events warrant...

*Yeah, it's just a Ritz cracker, but I'm trying to teach the boys to enjoy the little things in life so we call them "delicious buttery crackers." As in: "If I eat all my pork chop, can I get some delicious buttery crackers?"

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