It felt so good this weekend to actually finish reading an entire book.  I don’t think I had taken time to read this much since my January vacation.

I was at my “condo on the corner” at the shore the entire weekend.  I hardly turned the television on.  And I didn’t have my computer to check my emails or search the web.  I had my Blackberry, but I didn’t even take a peek.  It felt soooo good.

I read Jane Green’s latest novel called Dune Road. It was a light, entertaining chick-lit.  Great, I thought to myself, I can check this one off my retirement reading list.

I was so excited to be reading books again (don’t worry, I read my July issue of Vogue too, I’m not giving up on my magazines), that I couldn’t wait to pick up another book from my pile which is about to topple over.  There are so many books on my shelf.  Hard cover, paperbacks, and oh yes, my Kindle, which is filled with the Twilight series.

“Are you going to go to see Eclipse with me?” asked my daughter A, who has read the entire “Twilight” saga.  In fact, I think she may have even read some of the “Twilight” books twice.

“I think I’ll wait until I read the book,” I said to A.

“Oh, mom,” said A, ” You never even finished New Moon, Eclipse is the third book.  There’s Breaking Dawn too.”

“I’ll add them to my retirement reading list,” I told A.  “However, I have other books that are higher up on the list.”

Next up, are three memoirs.  They all sound so interesting. Since I want to write my own memoir, I think it will be helpful to read a few:

1. Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert.  I loved Gilbert’s memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, when I read it shortly after I lost my spouse. Like Gilbert, I wanted to run away to Italy and eat, to India to pray, and to Bali to fall in love again.  This second memoir is about her marriage to the man she fell in love with in Bali.

2. The Journal Keeper by Phyllis Theroux.  Theroux sent a copy of her book to me after she read my blog. It’s a journal about six years in Theroux’s life filled with change, loss, love and laughter.  Since Theroux is an accomplished writer (she teaches writing workshops too, ooh, I may have to go to one of her workshops, yes, yes, yes) and a fellow baby boomer woman, I thought it would be worthwhile to read her story.

3. For My Next Act…Women Scripting Life After Fifty by Karen Baar.  The minute I opened the book jacket I knew this book was for me.  Listen to the first sentence: “Baar looks at the challenges and opportunities facing women as they struggle to come to grips with their own mortality, unrealized dreams, the myth of the empty nest, aging parents, and raging hormones.”  (Me, me, meeee!)

If I read a chapter in each book each night and read each morning while I’m doing my 15 minutes on my stationary bicycle, how long will it take me to finish all three books?  Hmm, hmm, hmm.  When is my next vacation?  Ooh, ooh, ooh, it’s in a few weeks.  I’m taking a few days off to spend at the shore.

Ooh, ooh, ooh, I’m so excited to be reading again.  But, I wish I could remember the title or author of another book I read about recently in Entertainment Weekly.  It was written by an author who self-published her book and then it became so popular that a publisher decided to publish it. Maybe my menopausal mind will remember the title or the author by the time I’m ready for my vacation. Or maybe I was really dreaming and that was a book review about my forthcoming book if I ever get a chance to write it!

Judi