It’s been a really weird year, hasn’t it?
Over the course of the Panera Bread we are very much still living through, we’ve talked a lot about how reading habits have changed. Many expressed an inability to read anything new. The mental exhaustion made it hard for folks to concentrate, the emotional exhaustion made it hard to take in anything new, to expose oneself to unpredictable emotional journeys. Priorities changed, spending habits changed. Maybe you had kids to take care of at home. Maybe you just didn’t want to give your money to A Large Corporation and there weren’t any indie bookstores delivering near you. Or maybe you only wanted to read something you knew would have a happy ending, an escape to something gentler than the world around you. Whatever the case may be, our relationship to reading has shifted.
I feel very lucky that reading is part of my life, but even so, the way I read has changed. I feel less able to commit to big series, I find it difficult to get through anything with too much violence. I sure as hell won’t be reading any pandemic dystopias any time soon. But I still feel incredibly grateful for the plethora of good stories that are out there. No matter what, I’m always able to find characters to fall in love with, and beautiful new worlds to escape to.
And I love being able to share them with you.
