Each week, I wrack my brain to come up with an interesting topic that will hopefully spark discussion amongst my readers. It doesn’t sound like a difficult job, but after coming up with topics each week can be a challenge. If you have any bookish discussion topic suggestions, please reach out to me!

This week has been one of adjustment, where I’m reliant on my mother to drive me anywhere I need to go, and she has severe mobility issues. This creates a dynamic where be both rely on each other, since I am not able to do some of the things that I was able to do before my Achilles strain. Fortunately, we have worked out a system that makes our lives a little easier.

Now that my own personal update is out of the way, I want to talk about this week’s topic, reading about current events. A few years ago, I would never have thought that this would even be a discussion topic. However, since the pandemic began, I noticed a big change in my reading preferences, and have heard about this from others.

Typically, reading about current events can help readers learn more about the situations affecting people around the world. I remember being fascinated by current events as a kid, and there were a lot of huge events that I lived through. However, many of them happened when I was too young to fully grasp what was occurring. Some that I can think of right off the top of my head are the explosion of the Challenger Space Shuttle, the Cold War, the meltdown at Chernobyl, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and 9/11.

I have learned so much from books that discuss current events. They aren’t always easy to read, and there are a lot of emotions that arise during the reading. I’ve found it much easier to read about historical events and learn about them from both nonfiction and historical fiction. Often, after reading a historical fiction book about a major historical event, I am pushed to learn more about it through other nonfiction books.

On the other hand, I have mixed feelings about reading books touching on recent events. After living through the COVID pandemic, I had limited interest in reading books featuring COVID in the story. Reading is often an escape for me, and if it touches on the very same thing I’m currently trying to escape from, the book isn’t able to transport me and doesn’t work as an escape. I read two books featuring the pandemic prominently and one was based on facts and was very informative, while the other used the pandemic as a central event around which the story was written, although I didn’t like that one as much.

For the most part, I found myself actively avoiding books that featured a pandemic that was keeping me trapped in the house for the majority of the time. Maybe it was just too soon to have the same impact for me as reading about pandemics that occurred earlier in time, that I’ve been able to process.

How do you feel about reading current events?