WHAT have you finished reading recently? The Dark Sacred Night, Michael Connolly. A Bosch/Ballard novel in which his grumpy retired cop and his increasingly-annoyed-at-the-system novice cop join forces to drink black coffee, listen to jazz, and grouse about the system together. It may not get a review, because my reading of it was interrupted; I read half, then read an entire series by CJ Box, then finished it.

WHAT are you reading now? Currently enjoying The Goblet of Fire, full-cast audio edition, and committing to my Confessions re-read for Classics Club, Lent, and a buddy read.

WHAT are you reading next? I need to start Paradise Lost for CC since it was the spin.

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. I already have two formidable Lenten challenges set before me — rereading The Confessions and tackling Milton, though spiritual boons of reading Paradise Lost are suspect at best. I’ve been fairly faithful in doing the Bible in a Year podcast, and in Lent I want to introduce and maintain the practice of doing it first thing in the morning, before I do anything else. I also want to finally commit to The Religion of the Apostles, a history of first-century Christianity: I’m very curious about the subject, and have been pecking at a copy of the Book of Jubilees just to better appreciate the first-century Jewish-turned-Christian mind, but have not yet really settled down with it.