I’ve been away for a while. A long while. I did something I never thought I would do — I took a break from reading. I went through a pretty stressful period that included a bad breakup, buying my first house, and the death of my mother after a long illness. It was pretty rough. I found that for a while, the only reading I wanted to do was re-reading. I wanted to read something I’d read before, something I knew I would like, and I wanted to know how it would end. That has happened before when I’ve been under stress; I don’t want the delicious tension of a new story, I want the comfort of an old favorite. But my reading mojo seems to be back and I couldn’t be happier. I missed it, even as I was picking up a new book, reading a few chapters, then setting it aside. Maybe someday I will go back and finish that stack of books, bookmarks stoic little reminders of where I finally gave up. I hope some of you are still out there, reading this. In these crazy times, I hope we’re all reading.