Read. Also, read.

It’s hard for me to imagine a world in which a giant portion of my life isn’t entrenched between lines in a book. As a child, especially when on long car and/or RV journeys, I’d regularly read a novel every other day or so. I haven’t the time to be so prolific now. However, since I built this website a little under a month ago, I’ve read:

Witch’s Boy by Kelly Barnhill (no one is better than Kelly Barnhill)

Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill (ahem. See above! NO ONE!)

Abraham Lincoln by Carl Sandburg (sort of wish I could have read all the independent volumes rather than this condensed version. Then again, I have a life!)

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (so many time travel questions! I’m a 12 Monkeys time travel guy, or Time Traveler’s Wife. Not a Back to the Future or T2 for reference)

The Counterclockwise Heart by Brian Farrey (interesting take on balance within magic)

I’ve had a focus recently on “like minds” to help develop my own writing. Yes, this excludes Abraham Lincoln, but it’s Abe! Visited his tomb at the conclusion of the book and managed to hold myself together much more capably than expected. I guess that’s the thing, right? Books have dictated my movements through life rather than being a distraction. I don’t read to escape reality, I read to direct myself through it. Kelly Barnhill’s works (ALL OF THEM) have such an incredible, beautiful humanity within them that I remember to be gracious and kind thereafter. Most of what I’ve learned over my lifetime have come from two sources: my father, and books. Books taught me the proper pronunciations of Meso-American words, the ancient stories of the Norse and how it fashioned their lifestyle, the pathway to leadership through empathy, and how to be courageously kind.

In conclusion, read. Also, read. Especially, Kelly Barnhill. No one is better. NO ONE.