I’m out of my regularly scheduled routine this weekend, in a cabin that unexpectedly has no WiFi. It’s been great to be forced to read more, but I’m grateful for the tiny sliver of 3G data that’s allowing me to make this update. As such, I’m a bit behind on the posts I had planned to knock out, such as Part II of the Backwards Book Review for A Wrinkle in Time and a voice-based storytime highlighting on if my favorite passages.

The reason for this trip is a memorial service for a man who has been hugely influential in my life. Today I found myself scanning his bookshelves, both in memory of him and in search of books for my own reading list.

• Solzhenitsyn
• Tolstoy’s retelling of Russian fairy tales
• Vince Flynn novels
• L. Somerset Maugham

My progress in reading has been proceeding at a glacial pace as of late, but it’s been proceeding.

Inspired by Tolstoy, I’m considering taking my book of Brothers Grimm tales and making it the centerpiece of a weekly feature here. It would be fun to take a look at fairy tales in light of current developments.

Goodness knows we all need some extra help in remembering that we can defeat the dragons.