Recently wrote about my pandemic reading increased in three different waves. The initial lockdown, our Emory & Henry Read-A-Thon,and my moving to New Bern all have impacted my reading year and helped me meet my reading goal by far. But, the pandemic brought other improvements to my reading that are much more subtle. Check out my Goodreads to see my 2020 in books! 
Overall, my friend would concur, besides bouts of sentimentality, and yes depression, I am rather easy on emotions. Especially when it comes to books and reading. I have read some sad, sad books in the past and not felt a thing. Perhaps I wasn't in a place or period of my life to really feel what the author intended. Not so after 2020 and 2021. Things were/are different in my reading life besides just reading more books. Maybe it is the fear of the unknown, getting sick away from my family or worse them getting sick away from me, or just a shear missing the people I love (I have a "nephew" I haven't seen since the weekend before lockdown), but I have felt books far more then I have every before.
Currently I am reading The Mathews Men: Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler's U-boats by William Geroux. When they talk about leaving families behind, I suddenly understand that on a deeper level. Hugging my folks at Christmas is the closest I ever want to come to hugging them before boarding a ship into the unknown. While I did have to pace myself with some books (I'm Telling The Truth, But I'm Lying: Essays by Bassey Ikpi being the primary one) I was able to get through the density with limited break downs.
It's not been all bad. The heroes of Elmore Leonard, the jokes in Sloane Crosley's I Was Told There'd Be Cake and the joys of Loretta Lynn's in Me & Patsy Kickin' Up Dust: My Friendship with Patsy Cline have all been enhanced! For the first 100 pages of Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon by Buzz Aldrin I was captivating beyond compare. Buzz and I were there on the moon together. Weightless..smeightless...I was one the edge of my seat for all three of the novellas in Sea Witch by Stephen Koontz. When that PBY took it's last hit, I ducked. Why? I was more involved. Good books were better, funny books funnier in 2020 and 2021. I threw one across the room (Hard Cash Valley by Brian Panowich) and nearly wrecked the car I was laughing so hard at another (That How I Heard It by Mike Rowe)
Not only was/is 2020 and 2021 really good for the number of books I read, I read those books to their fullest. Again, it might be the sentimentality talking, but I have felt things deeper than I have in the past with books. Maybe it's having read more and gotten into good reading habits, maybe its reading more than I have in years past, but maybe..just maybe it's because I've felt so much more in the middle of a pandemic.
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