Sometime in June, I wanted to re-read all the books I’d get again and again from the library as a teen. And I wanted my own copies of them, finally. So I put in a few orders at Thrift Books and spent the summer reading stories about girls with magic in space, girls with magic in the desert, girls who make friends with horses, girls who make friends with unicorns with magic, girls who go to college, girls who paint watercolors, and a couple new ones (The Summer Book, the Dodie Smith one that I’m saving for when there’s a nip in the air).

Honestly it was one of the best $20 I’d spent in a long time, just to have those old beat up covers that I remember and to be able to take my time with all of them again. I hadn’t read any fiction for a while and I’d forgotten how nice it is to get out of your own head and into the head of a girl having adventures. With magic.