As a fan of Gretchen Rubin and Elizabeth Craft, of course I made a “22 for 2022” list. After four years (I think) of creating these lists of things I want to do within the current year, this year I remembered to include some fun, relaxing, and immediately achievable things.

So I ordered earbuds for my Mac: check. Twenty-one (or so) things to go.

Hubby and I have already had one date night, with four dates to go. (All five count as one item. Slick, aren’t I?)

There are other items on my list that are in progress, such as painting the bathroom. I’ve mostly completed that, but it needs touching up. Badly.

I sprained my ankle climbing up and down the ladder and am waiting for it to heal before I complete the job. But the color is a gorgeous lilac. It makes all the difference in the small room.

One of the things I am most excited about on my 2022 list is having a day devoted to reading. I asked Barry if he’d like to join me, and he gave an enthusiastic yes, so this Saturday is the day!

Even better — we are going to read the same book, Daisy Jones and the Six. I read it a few months ago, and it affected me so much I couldn’t even talk about it. I added a t-shirt with one of its best lines to my Christmas wish list.

When I opened the gift and teared up, Hubby asked why it moved me so much. I finally mentioned the book, but I still couldn’t talk about it. It gutted me, that book. I don’t know why, but it’s exquisitely written, so there’s that. And I’ve just written a novel about songwriting, so that may play into it.

Nope, I’m still not ready to talk about it, but I am ready to re-read it. I can only hope Barry enjoys the book as much as I did. And devoting a whole day to reading? What a luxury.

I can say this much about the book: it explores the seductive power of co-creation, and how the result of personal heartache can be damn fine art, though at what cost? The author, Taylor Jenkins Reid, has said it is loosely based on imagining what happened in the band Fleetwood Mac. (If you don’t know that story, it’s worth an internet search.)

We both have a pile of backup books if we’re not feeling Daisy. If I know Hubby, there will be a stack of comics beside his reading perch just in case. I’m 100 pages into a novel I’ll probably abandon, though I rarely do that, but reading it is an option. This is the third time I’ve attempted to read this author, and she just doesn’t send me, which I hate, because everyone says such good things about her work.

I’ve been meaning to read Daniel Deronda for a few years now, so maybe it’s time to dip into that, if I need to change it up. Winter is the best time to read lengthy tomes, don’t you think?

They are making a miniseries out of Daisy apparently featuring Elvis Presley’s granddaughter, Riley Keough, if the reports are accurate. I both want to see it when it comes out and not. I have a love/hate relationship with screen adaptations of most books. It’s complicated. Well, maybe it’s not: if it’s too much like the book, I prefer the pictures in my head. If it’s too dissimilar, I get indignant at the liberties they’ve taken. I had a friend once say I’m a complicated woman. He’s not wrong.

If you have any free time this weekend, I invite you to spend some of it reading. If you do, let me know what you read.

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