I read in whatever way I want to. Sometimes, I get oriented to the characters and then go read the end. To me, this is akin to reading a book more than once. You know what happens, so you can enjoy how the author unveils the story more. Or you could try listening to it first, and then reading it. You are not disrespecting your mom if you don’t enjoy the book. She is by far more than one book! Of one thing I am certain, she would not want you to suffer over this in any way. If you loved her this much, I’m guessing she loved you so much, too. This is her gift to you.

Do you mind me asking if, looking back, you were truly doing your best work? And were you young and still resilient or older? The aging body in general mixed with heavy drinking really doesn’t make sense to me as a person who could jump out of bed and go.

Yes. What about being a heavy drinker is necessary or interesting to the story? It just gives the main character something to do with time off, it seems. Many times, I think it’s meant to make them “interesting”, when most heavy drinkers I know aren’t. They like to talk about… drinks and drinking. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Plus, it’s usually a man or a woman trying to be like a man.

Not this year, but a book I have re-read many times is The Kin of Ata are Waiting for You. To be honest should read again to see how it holds up. I rarely see this book mentioned, but it really sticks with me.

Mmmm. I don’t want to own every book I’ve ever read. If I had to, I’d probably just read the news, which can be very informative, exciting, and amazing. I don’t really care for authors who want to think for me anyway, meaning lots of news stories are well written and make ME do the thinking. I grew up going to the library every Saturday. Thank God for them, as we didn’t have much money.