Like the title suggests, I’ve decided to commit to more reading in 2026. Off to a great start so far, having read Mary Roach’s hilarious and fascinating dive into the unique oddities, hazards, and rewards of space exploration in Packing for Mars. I also just finished the eerily prescient Octavia Butler novel The Parable of the Sower, and will quickly be jumping in to the sequel. These are two books that I gave to my niece for Christmas, having been intrigued by the back cover blurbs and a cursory thumb-through. I hope that she enjoys them both, but am a bit concerned about some of the mature content in Octavia Butler’s tale. We will at the very least have lots of conversational fodder.