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I hope this post finds everyone in the best of health and you are all taking precautions to stay that way.

It’s already the end of April and summer is close. I can’t help but wonder what kind of summer we will face – or shall I say face-covered? We will want to catch those beautiful rays and pursue our favorite pastime – devouring books. Reading outdoors will be a challenge for many. I’m lucky enough to have a big yard (both front and back), so maintaining distance is not a problem for me. But not everyone lives in suburbia. How do we catch some rays and read without close encounters with our fellow beings? Stoops are good, a nearby bench is even better. With a little luck the parks will reopen and we can read, keeping a safe social distance, without fear of contamination.

What will you be reading over the summer? I have a stockpile of novels from various conferences that I can dig into. There are also Kindle titles that you can buy, or you can borrow them from the library, without ever having to leave your home. The problem with that is the sun! I can’t see a thing on my screen when I’m outdoors, and if the book is in The Cloud and I’m too far away from my router, I lose the signal. Yeah, I know I can take it off The Cloud and store it on my iPad, but I have a ton of titles there already. I will have to rely on my freebies when reading outside, and save the Kindle titles for indoor reading.

For those of you who are curious about history, I’ve done some research on the 1918 flu pandemic, Typhoid Mary, The Plague (which I mentioned in my last post), the Ebola outbreaks, etc. I find how past cultures have dealt with these scourges encouraging, and get a sense of hope that life goes on no matter what. Others have gone through this. We are not the first people to deal with what feels like an impossible situation. We certainly won’t be the last.

We are strong. We are tough. We are readers. We can do this!

Stay safe and healthy. And please leave a comment to let me and everyone else know what you’re reading and more importantly, how you are feeling!