Slice of Life: You still do that?

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 

to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Melanie, and Lanny

 for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday and nurturing our writing lives.

A couple of weeks ago while leading our women's meeting at church, someone shared the good news of her daughter's new nanny.  The nanny is from France, and her name is Amina.  I commented on how much I loved that name and that I had recently  read a middle grade novel (Amina's Voice) which had a main character with the same name.  
Someone in the room said, "You still do that?"  I was surprised because reading middle grade novels is something I do because I love doing it. It's not something that I just did because I taught sixth graders or just because I led an after school book club for three years after I retired. This year I'm saying goodbye to the after school book club because my life after retirement is overfull.  Not to worry, I'm still hoping to squeeze in some visits to a monthly group starting at our public library.

This past spring I added babysitting my grandson Jack three days a week to an already full schedule that includes leading the ministry for our ladies group at church and decluttering because someday we will downsize and move to a smaller place (no immediate plans, but it's in the ten year plan).   And there's organizing the family pics and working on family history and filing recipes and writing blog posts, so I never feel bored or unfulfilled.   

So while I won't be meeting with middle schoolers weekly to talk books, I'll still be grabbing any tween reader I encounter to discuss what they're reading.  And occasionally I'll write a slice of life or celebrate post about my latest discoveries.  So in answer to the recently asked question, "You still do that (read middle grade novels)?"

I respond with a hearty, "You bet!  I still read middle grade titles because I love every moment spent with these books and the delightful authors who write for this audience!"

Middle grade titles are one of the four squares of my reading diet:

          1.  picture books 

          2.  middle-grade fiction

          3.  fiction for grownups

          4.  nonfiction that includes memoir and self-help (Yes, I'm   hopelessly addicted to organizational books and books that focus on healthy habits.)  

Feel free to share your thinking in your comment.  Do you suppose you'll still read "kid books" after retirement?   Have you ever thought about the essentials of your reading diet?