Hurray! I finished reading my first novel for pleasure in 2013. Break open the bubbly.

I haven't read any novels for the fun of it since the end of last year. That's a slump for me. The primary reason isn't for the lack of motivation, but rather the lack of time. I've been revising and writing my own novels. Mostly revising new projects, really. Plus, I review a lot of books professionally.

I had finally arrived at a good pausing point, so I decided to finish reading a paperback that had been sitting on my nightstand all winter. The bookmark was tucked in at about page 10, so I'd edged into the plot. That was a good start, anyway.

Many writers don't read other works of fiction while they're in-progress with their own titles. Doing so messes with their minds, or mojos, or something. I'm a lot that way, too, particularly if I'm in the white heat of writing my first draft to a new crime novel. Newspaper and nonfiction reading is fine, but fiction isn't a good idea. At least, I've found that to be true at this point in my writing career.

Reading is a funny thing. Sometimes you burn out on it. So, you wait and somehow the old itch returns, and you're off again, digging it. Anyway, I've got a pile of books waiting for me to jump into, so I'll have to select which title goes to the top of Mount To-Be-Read. Maybe I'll get to it sooner although I don't see another lull coming any time soon. Lots of writing lies ahead of me. It gets the first priority.

This is the book I used to break out of my 2013 reading slump: