Working in a school in upstate New York, Friday, March 13th was our last day of in-person instruction. It also happened to be the day after my sons’ birthday and we had to cancel their friend and family birthday parties that weekend. Whatever school was going to look like for the rest of the year was undeniably tenuous. How would my co-librarian and I support our students and teachers? How would I support my 5th graders with their work at home? It was going to look different than it had every had, but one thing was going to be certain, I was going to read.

I’m a reader who rarely has reading slumps or droughts. I am always prepared with books for every mood and in every format so that I continue to read. Before the pandemic if there was a day or two I didn’t pick up a book, it was usually due to a day packed with work and family obligations but I had started reading for 15 minutes each morning so I could say that I did read daily, it just wouldn’t usually amount of finishing a book.

So Saturday, March 14th happened. It was the start of a weekend, but the start of new uncharted territory so I decided that to lay a foundation of familiarity, thus, I would read at least a book a day. Done. If there’s one thing you know, it’s that I like a challenge. Challenge accepted. It might be a picture book or it might be finishing a book I had been listening to for several days, but I would finish a book a day.

This past Sunday, Father’s Day, happened to be one hundred days of reading a book a day. I’ve documented my journey on my Instagram not only to be able to see how much I’ve read, but how varied my moods have been and what was available.

I recognize that many readers have been significantly affected by the pandemic and found themselves in droughts of reading. That’s okay. I look at my ability to read a book a day as a necessity– like a writer writing, I’m a reader reading. It has kept me grounded and focused when other things weren’t so definite. My safety net. My life raft.

It doesn’t have to be reading, but has there been something you’ve done daily since the pandemic? As I wrote that last sentence, I thought of Aisha Saeed’s daily Twitter post

and a recently-read book, but yet-to-be-published book by Syed M. Masood called More Than Just a Pretty Face where main character Danyal shares a thought about a new girl he’s met: “I hope that Bisma Akram had something similar in her life, something that could bring joy and light when all seemed dark.”