No year would be complete without me coming here and gracing your eyeholes with a post about my reading struggles. Now, before we get into the “meat and potatoes” of this column, I do want to preface that I am killing it with my yearly reading challenge. Like Michael Myers style… get it? Because he’s a killer? No? Whatever guys, whatever.

Weird horror movie analogies aside, I really am having an excellent reading year. If my Good Reads Challenge is to be believed, I am currently sixteen books ahead of my fifty-two book goal and just flying through reads. In the last month or so I’ve read the excellent Star Wars: Lords of the Sith, the breathtaking Normal People, the anxiety bringing Bird Box sequel Malorie, and good ole summer read, The Woman In Cabin 10. That’s not even counting the four graphic novels I read in between. Like I said, it’s been a very productive reading year that’s sure to crush previous reading goals. #humblebrag

Part of the problem of being on such a reading tear is there’s always the crash. Think of it as a sugar high. You pump yourself full of sugary goodness and then you crash and when you crash you land hard. This is just like that except replace sugar with stories. That kind of happened to me last week. I finished The Woman In Cabin 10, a fun little mystery book with enough twists to make for a solid summer read, and then had no idea what my next book was. Usually, when I’m about three-quarters of the way through a book, I start to plan what’s next. I kept running into wall after wall. Listen, Gandalf the Kindle houses hundreds of books. I keep an Amazon Wishlist and am constantly pulling things off when they drop on sale. There is very little better than buying a book for $2.99. Feels like stealing. And then those books sit in my Kindle collecting dust until I feel the time is right to read them. 

Well, once I finished Cabin 10, I started cycling through these books. There are some true treasures in there waiting to be read, the only thing is, now isn’t the time. I attempted like five or six of them and none of them felt right. I was weirdly opposed to books who had sequels which is strange because the longer I can hang out with characters the better. But it just wasn’t what I wanted right now. I had the urge to read two different Star Wars books but then was thinking that I just read a Star Wars book so maybe I should wait. I was trying to talk myself out of reading something I knew that I actually wanted to read. And because of that, I struggled to try to find a substitute.

Seriously, last night we watched Lovecraft Country, which was incredible with casting ripped straight from my imagination, and then I proceeded to stay up to midnight cycling through books. None of which fit right. It was frustrating. It was annoying. It seemed like a silly problem to have. It may sound unusual but I kind of know my next two books. Which I’m sure has you wondering why not make one of them your current book. Well… they’re next. I’m not ready for them just yet. Think of it as they’re currently in the batters circle and they’re on deck. I wasn’t willing to call them up early.  I don’t know, makes sense to me.

Ultimately, I went to bed last night not knowing what my next book was going to be. I know, I know very discouraging. So I woke up this morning, went for a walk, had a half-hour before I had to start getting ready for work, opened up Gandalf the Kindle… aaaaaand started reading Star Wars Dark Disciple. I regret nothing except maybe the amount of time it took for me to stop ignoring the fact that this was going to be my next book. On the plus side though, it’s based on scripts for six episodes of The Clone Wars that never got a chance to see the light of day. And after those last four episodes of The Clone Wars who am I to say no to more content from that series?!  A win-win for yours truly, and I already know what I’m reading next. All feels right in the world.