The problem with only posting every once in a great while is that I don't know how to say "Once every two weeks" in any reliable way. Is it once a fortnight? Biweekly? Bimonthly? Semi-monthly? For some reason, time span words don't take root in the poor soil of my mind. (Whew, that's a pretty nuts metaphor. Sorry.)

I think this is happening in part because my girls—they're not little. I'm not really as involved in their reading as I once was. I am more of a spectator, and I try (oh how I try!) to keep my mouth shut on what they're reading. But…I am not always successful.

Given that I'm not as involved, and that so many of my posts used to be about being involved, the things that occur to me to write about are, let's say, evolving. But I like having this strange cyber-conversation with you. It's nothing I ever expected, which is part of what makes it fun.

I figured I could just post what they're reading, and maybe you'll react as I do, which is more or less to say "Huh." But that's sort of a conversation, isn't it?

Chestnut has an ongoing rotation of:

City of Thieves: A sort of buddy-movie-type novel set in the siege of Lenin-grad.

Liberty's First Crisis: A nonfiction account of the Sedition Act, written by my good friend Charlie Slack. It's coming out in March, but he sent her galleys so she could use it as a source in a history project, and now she reads it all the time and it's currently on the bathroom floor (the place of honor).

Darke: One of the Septimus Heap books.

The Round House: A novel about a murder on an Indian Reservation.

For Diana, it's more shrouded. I'm not generally allowed to know what she's reading, or she's not around reading it, or so much of what she reads is online, or…I don't know, she's not leaving them on the bathroom floor, I can tell you that much. What I do know, is that she's reading these:

Dracula: I don't need to tell you what this is about, right? Nice to see someone going to the source.

The Shining: Oh my god, I find this book so terrifying, and I don't know how she'll take it, but so far she is still able to sleep at night. I think about that creepy fire hose often.

Cooks Illustrated: The "Best of" issue. Over and over. I cannot explain this. But she's not wrong—the intro to the New York cheesecake article is pretty funny.

Homestuck: I cannot explain this either. Apparently I cannot explain anything.

Is this a message to you all from the World of the Teenaged? Or just something that will in no way ever appear in any of your lives? I have no idea!

Where will it go next? Ditto.

I hope you're all well. Maybe I'll talk to you all in a fortnight.