M. Suzanne Terry

*theme music to Rocky playing in background*

I have been excited about this weekend since I heard about it in early July, and it lived up to my every expectation. The only way this weekend could have been better is if I had taken my books to a hotel with good room service near a beach. Maybe next time.

To prepare to read for 24 of the 48 hours in a weekend, I gathered a lot of books. I expected that I would read a little bit from most of them, switching things up as my attention waned. This was not the case for most of the time, though. I finished A Year in Provence, and then I savored Milk and Honey, reading it slowly and in the case of some of the poems, over and over. I finished the day (erm, next morning – it was definitely after sunrise when I went to sleep) devouring Love, Loss, and What We Ate. My reading on day two, however, was a little more like I’d planned. I listened to most of Roxane Gay’s Hunger on audio while cleaning, read the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay and Nayyirah Waheed, and spent a half hour here and there on several other items on my read-next list.

What I learned from reading all weekend:

1. Is there a job where I can do this all the time? I feel like I’d be fantastic at it.
2. 24 hours, even with breaks, is a loooong time to sit. Fine. I relent. Audiobooks can be your friend.
3. It’s been really easy to eat well this weekend. It turns out that holding a book distracts me/keeps my hands busy enough that I don’t eat mindlessly. I’m almost annoyed that my secret to eating better is something as fun and simple as reading a lot. It seems I could have figured that out a while ago.
4. I need poetry. I’ve been super stressed out lately, but halfway through Milk and Honey, I was completely relaxed. And those are not exactly soothing verses. There’s something about the way poetry captures language that slows me down and quiets me. I prescribe more poetry reading.
5. I can’t speak for all writers, but for me, reading inspires writing. In addition to reading for a whole day, I have written more – poetry, my fiction WIP, future blog posts – this weekend than the rest of the days this month combined. I’m thinking of starting a practice of one wordy weekend a month. Oh, introvert bliss!

I loved this weekend. It was just what I needed.