Non-Painful Pivot series: Changing Priorities in Your Reading Life

Maybe I should say “less-painful” pivots. Pivots usually come with at least a small sense of loss, grieving what life used to be like. It could be a big pivot with big feels about missing my in-person classroom after my daughter was diagnosed with leukemia. Or it could be a smaller pivot and grief, like wishing I didn’t have to write flat on my back with my knee elevated on the couch (I miss my desk and sitting on the back porch!).

During different seasons of life, I’ve found that I have different capacities for reading different types of books.

And that’s okay. I’ve learned to embrace that and lean in to that.

When I was pregnant, I remember reading a WWII historical fiction book about the Holocaust and called my husband BAWLING, who was changing the oil in his truck. He came running upstairs thinking something was wrong…but I was just sad about the book. I don’t even remember which book it was.

After I graduated from Clemson, I was a Warren Fellow at the Holocaust Museum Houston. It was a wonderful, heavy, intense experience. I am “used to” reading and learning about the Holocaust (as much as you can get used to reading about horrors like that), but my extra-hormonal pregnancy state had me choosing to read other types of books during that season.

Immediately after our daughter was born, I didn’t read for a time. I just slept, nursed, ate, survived. And that’s okay.

After going back to work, my reading life looked like audiobook thrillers that would keep me awake on my long commute. This was not the time for reading literary fiction in hardcover (too hard to concentrate and balance a book AND a baby).

When our daughter was diagnosed with leukemia, I could only concentrate on cozy mysteries (and I still usually have one going- ebook form- for appointments). Keeping a toddler from yanking out her IV doesn’t leave much room to concentrate on anything too complicated (plot-wise or emotional-wise).

A new delightful change however is our daughter’s Yoto Mini (read more about how I set it up here). We listen to books together while she’s playing or while we’re driving somewhere. She especially loves the Paw Patrol Pup Pack. I highly recommend the Yoto- it is so nice to hand it off to my daughter, instead of risking her using my phone (she now thinks it’s funny to lock me out).

Anyway, life is too short to read bad books. Embrace the season of reading that you’re in right now!

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