busy, rereading, making coffee, and poetry

Of course the compulsion to read lives in my bones, but with graduate school work (mid-life student), and all my caregiving duties, I find myself incapable to reaching for the 10 novels/books I am working on. 

Poetry always eases me back into the written work, and I sometimes read and re-read the same poem for 15 minutes deciding how it will land and live in me.

morning cup and reading

I don't spend too much time editing posts or editing my life. 

This is the reality.

Caregiving is hard. Going back to school again in mid-life is hard. America is hard to live in right now.

This combination makes me yearn for re-reads. Familiar stories. Books that I can pick up, or turn on audio and know that meeting these characters again soothes my heart.

I don't use Goodreads... or Storygraph.... I do feel quite isolated in my reading life and may return to BookTube to rectify that, but for now I let myself swim between the pages of books I adore and new stories that don't feel like a waste of my limited reading time. 

I do have a feeling I'll emerge from this intensely focused time in my life with a renewed sense on all things, but for now, my head is down...  I'm chipping away at small and large goals, and finding comfort in the chapters that have carried me before.

Books/Collections/Stories I return to over and over:

1. Giovanni's Room
2. Anna Karenina
3. Anything by Mary Oliver
4. Everything by Audre Lore
5. Pride and Prejudice
6. Jane Eyre
7. Anything Doestoevsky
8. Toni Morrison's Sula
9. BBC Radio Adaptations of my favorite classics

Now, let me go and make another light roast pour over, and get started on my school work.

If Spring is finding you floundering... ignore all of the pressure to perform and live through great works of literature. 

I'll meet you there.

Happy reading ☕️ 

04: swann’s way called and I answered, snow shoveling and christmas tea

I read all 7 volumes of In Search of Lost Time (À la recherche du temps perdu) in 2022. It was a very intense year for me. Something deeply tragic happened, and for some reason I felt called to the work.

No one recommended it. I hadn't seen any videos where people talked about it. It just called me.

It happened again. 

I made a plan to re-read volume on "The Way By Swann's" in 2026, but I couldn't wait and I started it already. I am not a fan of the deckled edges on the Penguin Deluxe Classics, and am waiting (2-3 more weeks of waiting) for a different edition of the Lydia Davis translation to arrive. I will just manage somehow with these cringey deckled edges.

swann and my tree

Christmas Tea of Choice This Season

Tea// White Christmas 

Shoveling snow and remembering my memories (yes that sounds weird)

A mountain of snow fell and while it was gorgeous to look at with my morning coffee, I knew that if I shoveled my truck before the snow removal team came by, it would make for a better driveway situation for me. Hence... snow shoveling for 48 straight minutes.

I started Proust and have been (as I did on my first reading) thinking about memories. Days gone by. Past experiences shoveling snow.

It feels so melodic to review my life in this way.

I am always so surprised by what comes to mind when I am super mindful in the present moment. I think about how the memory is laying down in my brain...  my ability to recall it.

For a long time, I went to bed early. Sometimes, my candle scarcely out, my eyes would close so quickly that I did not have time to say to myself: "I'm falling asleep."

 

swann's way under the tree

I am not sure if I will stop at volume 1 or if I will carry on. For now, the goal is to just read this volume deeply and allow whatever needs to be remembered to come to me in a dream like state- similar to how Proust wrote this novel.

If you've been shy about picking it up, I highly suggest you do do. No pressure. No worries. 

Happy reading ☕️ 

02: cold decorations, coffee with thick soy milk, crime and punishment (the re-read) and book plans

The cold slammed into me as I stepped outside today. I could feel snow behind the winds that blew. 

Time to hunker down. 

Settle in. 

Slow down. 

Eliminate.

2025 is coming to a frozen close as the last month of the year has been ushered in. I’ve been spending a lot of time with Raskolnikov in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. 

This re-read is the ever-present reminder that the best time I spend with books, I spend with second, third, or tenth readings. 

I've been making my early morning pour overs with extra creamy soy milk and cinnamon with a sprinkle of nutmeg. It's felt decadent and very soothing. 

my book... my tree

Back when I used Bookstagram I wrote, “If it isn’t worth reading twice, it isn’t worth reading once ™️”. I still stand behind that.

-Curating a stack of books to read in 2026-

I decide what to read based off of how I am feeling, but I prefer to have a stack of books to pull from. I’ve spent a lot of time pulling titles from my shelves, and ordering a few books (never from Amazon) to pull from next year. 

new reads and some re-read plans

I’ll report what I’ve decided in a separate post and page in the banner here, but it’s been nice to really reflect on that. 

If I am not careful, I’ll spend the entire year re-reading. :)

october reading plans: re-reads, cozy literature, copious coffee cups, and used books

 

October stockphoto

It's that time of year again where reareading calls to my soul. There is nothing like returning to the comfort of a story that touched your heart or made you think of the human condition in a new or different way.

 I can see the appeal of checking books off of your TBR, but haven't you ever been summoned by a previous read? This need to complete so many books has many deadened the draw to old works. I have no strong opinions about people who read 500 vs 5 books per year or anything like that, but I do feel like an evangelist trying to convert non-rereaders to my cause :)

Because I don't use Goodreads or Storygraph anymore (may return to Storygraph one day), I have no idea how many time I have reread certain books, but like weather patterns, they start to enter my consciousness at certain times of the year.

The Autumn with its whispering winds, and calls for piping hot cinnamon coffee are accompanied by the faint murmurs of Austen's most ignored work Northanger Abbey and Charlotte Brontë's masterpiece Jane Eyre.

These calls stand in union with Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights- a novel that so frustrates me I will spend a lifetime rereading it just to make sense of why it bothers me so much! 

This October... (The Reread Edition)

1. Jane Eyre
2. Wuthering Heights
3. Northanger Abbey
4. Lolita
5. Crime and Punishment* (if there is time and my mental health allows it)

This October...(The New Read Edition)

1. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
2. Altered States by Anita Brookner (returning to this project)
3. Apple in the Dark by Clarice Lispector
4. Ghost Mountain by Rónán Hession
5. Creep by Emma van Straaten 

a stack of my books

My advice for this Autumn 

Ignore that bookish social media urge to rush through novels to increase your total books read. Ignore the feelings of FOMO (if you have them) that everyone is reading this or that.

Slow down.

Grab a cup of coffee or tea, a journal, and a deep breath.

Plan what novels you believe will speak to your heart or ones that really really call out to you.

Reading doesn't have to be a religious experience for you like it is for me, but perhaps if you have had the inkling to reread something but fear you could be reading something new and it will be a waste to reread, quiet that voice down with the opening paragraph from your most beloved novel.

Let this crazy time in the world be soothed by the comfort of a story that you love. 

I know that's what my Fall reading is all about.

Join me. ☕️ 

big summer re-read: war and peace: I love tolstoy

I've written about my stressful life, and nothing helps me feel better is working through a huge mammoth tome like War and Peace.

This will be a re-read for me. I have just been having a craving for it. I pondered with several titles (Middlemarch, Moby Dick, etc.), but something is calling me to War and Peace. So, that's enough for me. 

At 1382 pages for the Penguin Edition that I owe both physically and on kindle, I'll be starting on June 1st and having a goal of 25 pages per day.

i have this physical edition & this same translation on kindle

I love sinking my teeth into sprawling classics, and taking my time to structure my reading life around a "big read". 

Leo Tolstoy is one of my favorite writers of all time. I seriously have re-read Anna Karenina (one of my top 3 favorite books) over and over again. I find so much peace inside the complicated characters and stories that Tolstoy wrote.

Like Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy creates psychologically complex characters that help you learn so much about yourself as you read them.

If you read Anna's story and connected with her desire to be unfaithful because she felt restrained- you can better know yourself and what you think about infidelity. Do you lean more towards Levin's story? In War and Peace, I am eager to get back into the Napoleonic Era and the French invasion of Russia. Nothing like a good fictional account including Bonaparte. 

I'm aways reading a biography of Napoleon which should be a good accompaniment. 

side by side, this should be a great reading experience

Plans for Reading War and Peace this summer

1. 25 pages per day
2. Read physically
3. Read on kindle at night time (hello eye strain + light)
4. Blog my weekly experience here (along with photos!)
5. Keep notes in my physical book journal

I only read what inspires or motivates me. I don't read for number goals. I don't read to keep up with the literary Joneses. 

This is my life. My mental health. My sanity. I'm excited to dive back into this amazing novel. Feel free to join me. I'll be writing about it here.

Happy reading ☕️ 

November Autumn Reading Plans

This is the time of year I am the busiest and the sun rarely makes an appearance on the east coast for weeks at a time. sigh.

I usually start to re-read and begin to think about books that I planned to read at the beginning of the year.  I have a few classics that I would like to focus on, but in truth I may wind up rereading for comfort and the nights get longer.

I have been struggling with my daily tasks related to my full-time obligations, and when the nighttime rolls around, I only want to be comforted with entertainment. I'm fully burned out, and I can struggle with keeping only one book going at a time.

This means, I have a currently reading folder on my kindle that has about 9-15 books in it at a time and I can just bounce around between the books as my attention wanes. 

I can't blame social media for my attention shortage (unless you include YouTube) because it really relates to my burnout and inability to relax and focus. 

The books I've chosen satisfy me for each category my brain is looking to sink into. I only need to add a reread (most like Jane Eyre for the 2nd time this year) and a romance or cozy mystery for levity. 

Here's most of my start to the month:

August Reading Focus: Classic Literature

August will be a hot, muggy, busy, and stressful month. Going into this acknowledging this, is quite powerful.

Lots of hospital appointments, long nights, and pounds of coffee is on the horizon.

This means... classics and more classics. I have a plan to read and switch between lots of the classics left on my list to read in 2023. This list is as loose as a goose and I don't take any reading plans seriously. I'm not earning karma points for these reads. 

First up on the massive reading mashup is to continue with Mistress and Maid by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik (loving this with all my heart). I will also be starting Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. And in true me fashion, I'll add some comforting re-reads. Mansfield Park and Thomas Hardy's 1874 novel Far From the Madding Crowd.

What's exciting about my re-reads is that I never tire of looking forward to them. I always finish a re-read by watching my favorite screen adaptation as well. It's a truly comforting and cozy way to enjoy my reading life. 

August classics to start of with

It's book prize season and instead of having FOMO, I am going to focus on the books and authors that bring me joy and comfort. 

OH....and I'll be adding some reads from Anita Brookner as well. I am so happy to get back on my project of reading most of her oeuvre. 

Books to Read in June

June is Pride Month, but I read from LGBTQAI+ authors ALL year long. 

It's my birthday month and I have a lot of rereads, a lot of my favorite screen adaptations and lots of relaxing. Month long TBRs aren't really my style, but I am going through books I own + my current KU library, and trying to make progress on some titles. 

This coming month will bring us Summer days, and loads of appointments. It's a medical heavy month, and July will be a travel heavy month, but I am adamant about making this summer and reading summer!

Audio Reads

I LOVE this series

Excited to read these on kindle

update: DNF @51%

did not enjoy this
it could be me
i'm not a traditional
mystery reader.

Current Reads Beginning of Week May 29

Fresh off of the page count challenge and I am reading the Emily Henry, Me Before You (re-read), and still have to make progress in Mistress and Maid. 

I need to do a page a day in the classic, as I am lightening up my reading. It has been getting pushed to the background. I will not DNF it. 

DNF. hated it. bored to tears.

currently page 94

74% done

I should finish Me Before You today and maybe the Emily Henry...hmmm

Happy reading! ☕️

My Springtime Re-Read: Emma by Jane Austen

 

2023 Classic Re-Read: Emma

I am an avid proponent of re-reading. 

I believe deeply that if a book isn't worth reading twice, it isn't worth reading once.

My time is so valuable. So precious.

When I read, I am seeking to be entertained or to touch the sublime- all else is folly.

I'm ONLY here for the 5 star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reads. Nothing else will do.

I don't need to be a large part of the cultural conversation about currently published literature.

My degrees are NOT in literature. I do NOT care if someone else deems me "Well Read" or not. 

I've heard it all:

"Why would you waste your time reading Proust? It is so meandering and boring"

"Wow, you've read Proust! That's amazing."

"Jane Austen is so boring. I just don't get how people love the boring teacup drama. Who can even understand her anyway."

"Austen is timeless. She's the best writer I've ever read."

See where I'm going?

You have to read for yourself. YOUR own taste. What calls to YOU.

If you don't, you have a racked up list of novels that didn't excite you, and all you're left with it the fact that "people" can say you've read good stuff?  Or not, depending on to whom you're speaking.

ALL of that to say :).... Emma is my spring re-read. I'm in the mood for some nosey, messy, Austen drama followed up by a light screen adaptation. 

As with all re-reads, I know the story. There's no need to rush it. Emma will live alongside all of the other novels I have slotted for my Spring reads, and I'll most likely set a chapter goal. 

There are 3 Volumes, but if I'm honest, once I get into the novel, I will probably keep going. That's the Austen way.

She gets you into the drama and she is so darn funny, you can't look away.

Happy Springtime re-reading to you slow living friends. 🌸 

The Benefits of Constantly Re-Reading The Same Novels

I know I know. It seems tedious, unnecessary and boring.

I assure you, it is not.

if anna were alive today...

Let me start by telling you which novels I constantly re-read:

1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
2. Jane Eyre by Charolette Brontë
3. Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
4. Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
6. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Now that you can see what I always re-read, can you sense a theme? 

If you didn't notice it, the theme is: GREAT moving literature. Sweeping stories of love, loss, family, duty, morality, and so much more.

There are amazing books NOT on this list that I have re-read, but I am only mentioning those that I re-read frequently and often.

I simply cannot get enough of the novels above. I just keep squeezing, and squeezing the life out of these characters. I feel like I know (were they alive in real life) what each of them would do in certain situations.

They feel wholly real and authentic to me. Endlessly affecting. 

I've been known to

Ignore contemporarily published literature that bookish friends recommend, in order to curl up with Anna Karenina for the umpteenth time.

Have audio, physical, and ebook editions of my favorite novels to pull parts from at all times.

Let library books be due back before reading them in favor of picking up a frequent re-read

What pleasure do I derive from this behavior?

I get to meet old friends on the page. I get to hang out again with Levin. I get to go back with Kitty to the party where she prays that Vronsky will FINALLY ask for her hand in marriage.

I allow myself to be transported back to the dinner table with the Bennets as Mr. Collins compliments the "excellent boiled potatoes".

I get to gasp as Bathsheba Everdene does the wildly feminist thing of turning down Gabriel Oak at first take as she proclaims that she is her own person with her own wishes and being a wife isn't at the top of that list.

A challenge:

I dare you to ignore the "recently published" shelf in favor of a comforting re-read.

I dare you to curl up with a favorite book for a quiet afternoon and I dare you not to be moved by it.

I'll be over here doing my zillionth re-read of Anna Karenina after just finishing my millionth re-read of Jane Eyre.

Sure it's a new year and new shiny titles are the shelves. I read more than one book at a time, so I'll able to read new to me books (though rarely newly published books), AND stay in the company of my beloved classics.

Happy re-reading

Books I Want to REREAD in 2023: The Year of the Reading Slow Down (Even More)

I live by the adage (that I honestly believe I made up) "If it isn't worth reading twice, it isn't worth reading once". This is of course not always true, but it is for me 80+% of the time.

2023 will mandate that I slow down even more. Each year I aim to read less books per year. This is the antithesis of the bookish culture's need for more books, more hauls, and higher page counts, but I am seeking the sublime here. I want to stand in awe of what I read 80% of the time.

I've added lighter reads to balance out the stress in my life and I find immense value in that. 

I am however a HUGE proponent of the Rereading Movement. I capitalized the words, but I have no idea if that is a true movement or if I am starting one with this post :)

In the vain of having "comforting reads", I am going back to authors and works who have delighted and fascinated me before. There are some comfort reads that are so sacred to me that I return to them again and again and again- yet they don't lose their hold on my heart.

Here are my rereads for the next 12 months (2023 focused)

Classics I want to read in 2023 can be found here.

Tess of the D'urbervilles by my favorite
Mr. Thomas Hardy

Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
 Volume I of In Search of Lost Time

Anna Karenina by Count Leo Tolstoy
I reread this novel every single year

Emma by Jane Austen
It's time for an Emma reread

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
Love the Brontës. Adore Anne

I highly encourage you if you don't reread, to give it a shot. Pick a favorite of yours and revisit the world of those characters.

If you're afraid it won't hold up, that's okay. Put your book to the test. It will either reaffirm it as one of your favorites, or clear the space for you to put something better in it's place.

Happy slow and deep reading. 

Rereading Northanger Abbey Every October

I never tire of rereading Jane Austen's works.

I do have particularly opinions on the power of rereading, but this is a comforting read for me each October.

I know that some readers don't enjoy Northanger Abbey, but I adore it for what it is. Catherine Morland is definitely a heroine in my mind, and taking that journey with her to Northanger Abbey fills me with cozy and comforting feelings.

source: audible book cover

I take my time with the reread and this year am doing it on audio. I am NOT an audiobook listener, but for listening and doing a text combo, or listening to audiobooks of very familiar works. 

Jane Austen is my favorite novelist of whose works I love to listen.

I also reread Pride and Prejudice every year (sometimes more than once- hello 2021 when I reread it 3 times that year), and listening to it and reading it is such a powerful and amazing experience. 

I adore Jane Austen and urge you to check out an audiobook of Northanger Abbey from your local library if possible. Otherwise, there are lots of free audiobooks on YouTube. (I pay for Premium so I never have commercials).

Happy rereading my slow living friends. 

Austen All The Time: Rereading Bits and Pieces

I challenge you to see rereading not in terms of completing the novel in its totality- though this is how I reread most novels.

However, when it comes to Austen, I rearead certain passages of Pride and Prejudice (my most reread novel) and Persuasion, is that I reread certain chapters (Mr. Collins at the dinner table anyone?) over and over to just feel better. 

Source: Jane Austen's World

Mr. Collins was not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society; the greatest part of his life having been spent under the guidance of an illiterate and miserly father; and though he belonged to one of the universities, he had merely kept the necessary terms, without forming at it any useful acquaintance.

There's something to be said for loving a work of literature so much that you have it in multiple forms and can't go too long without picking it up and thumbing through it, or opening the ebook and scrolling through your highlights.

That is how I approach Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I also do this with Captain Wentworth letter to Anne Elliot in Persuasion.

 I can't help but reading Chapter 15 of Pride and Prejudice when I am having a bad day.

Listening to the painfully dull Mr. Collin go on about "excellent boiled potatoes",  I can't help but to feel my mood lighten.

Source: IMBD

I urge you to pick up your favorite great novel and read and reread certain passages without the pressure to read the entire novel.

I'll continue to do this and I hope you'll join me.

Happy reading my slow living friends. 

 

My Love of Rereading: A Personal Reading Philosophy

 I have been quoted repeatedly as having said, "If it isn't worth reading twice, it isn't worth reading at all."

I return over and over to one of my favorite Victorian novelists, and honestly one of my favorite novelists of all time: Thomas Hardy.

Source: Brittanica.com

Reasons that I love rereading:

1. I realize things I didn't read on the previous read
2. I allow myself to reread paragraphs and sentences in a slow and deep way
3. I can compare my thoughts/ feelings to my previous read

Novels on my rereading radar:

1. Tess of the D'Urbevilles by Thomas Hardy (will be my third read)
2. Jane Eyre by Charolette Brontë (a constant reread)
3. Macbeth by Shakespeare (planning to consume it via audio play at the river on a frosty day)
4. Shirley by Charolette Brontë

Those are the novels I want to deeply reread and see what all can be revealed to me about who I am now that I am at a new phase of my life.

That's the true point of rereading to me. I want to wring my literature dry. I want to pull as much as I possibly can out of each work.

This only works if your literature is dense and meaningful. You'll know the novels worth rereading on the first read.

Do you reread? If so, what's your latest or upcoming reread? I am fascinated by fellow bibliophiles who reread.

Happy reading my slow living friends.