This & That: March 14, 2023
Hi there readers!
In today’s newsletter, I have a couple quick thoughts on vacation reading, a fun list of unique pandemic novels, and, as always, some great links to peruse throughout your week.
Let’s get right to it!
Something I’m Thinking About: Vacation Reading
The Anderbergs are a week out from road-tripping to Utah for Spring Break, which means I’m anxiously trying to figure out what to read while we’re out of town.
Vacation reading carries a lot of pressure! It’s the most valuable reading time we have, being one of the few situations that’s expectation- and chore-free.
For me, picking the perfect vacation book means harnessing my psychic powers to choose a guaranteed 5-star read — or at least something close.
First, I look towards writers I know and love. Are there books from a favorite author that I haven’t gotten to yet? This tends to work quite well, like when I read Erik Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile last Spring Break.
Next, I assess the books that have been on my TBR for a looong time. That’s not a guarantee that I’ll like it, so then I often actually start a book or two before vacation — just a couple dozen pages — to try to gauge if it’ll hit the right notes for 5 stars.
My vacation reading philosophy is not an exact science, but I usually do pretty well. On my short list for this Spring Break are Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn, Fredrik Backman’s Us Against You, Jojo Moyes’ Giver of Stars, and Amor Towles’ The Lincoln Highway.
Do you have a system for picking vacation reads? A genre or author you gravitate to again and again for those most precious hours? I’d love to hear!