I haven't put any posts up recently; after my wife died unexpectedly in late December, I began "Lynn Stories," a series of vignettes about her life before and with me (48 & 29 years respectively) and some Lynn-connected events that have occurred since (e.g., I've given a matching grant for two of the local non-profit organizations she strongly supported, both with donations and with her time as a volunteer, pro bono therapist. They will share The Lynnette C. Jung Memorial Mental Health Fund.) I'm at 60,000 words into "Lynn Stories" as of today with many more vignettes to add, but it's therapy for me and I have no intention of publishing it.

But I've just recently started what I call multi-media reading, a concept which many others may have come up with, but I'd heard nothing about.

I almost always read non-fiction, often several books at the same time and yesterday, sitting on a recumbent bike in the health club I go to six days a week, started something that was new to me at least.

I will leave on a trip to five National Parks soon with my sixteen-year-old grandson ( he can now do part of the driving), so am reading a book called "Lassoing the Sun: A year in America's National Parks. We only have a week so plan to visit Great Sand Dunes NP, Mesa Verde, Canyonlands, Arches and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison before heading back to DIA.

As I'm reading, using the Kindle app on my iPad Air, I'm toggling in and out of the book, looking up names, photos, Wikipedia articles and lots of images.

This obviously slows down my usual reading pace, but it expands my knowledge and my pleasure in the book immensely.

Try the concept if you're not already using it