Fostering Imagination through Reading

Books I have read, am reading, will probably read

January has been an interesting month. Lots of fun things. Lots of everyday things. Lots of hard things. Lots of processing. January always seems to be both really long and really short. True again this year. How have we already reached February? And, dear Lord, we made it to February.

The last few months I have been trying to end the month with a Perspective post. Looking at where I have been, where I am going and where my feet are currently standing. But as I really embrace my phrase of the year “fostering imagination”¹ I thought I would instead share ways in which I am doing that each month in 2026.

Photo by Seven Shooter on Unsplash

I have started the year out with reading. I think it is one of the most important things you can do to foster your imagination. New ideas, new worlds, new perspectives. Books are a wonderful way to experience things you might never otherwise be able to do and along the way give you the courage to try something you never thought you could do. The world would be very small without books.

I’m not sure I finished a book in January, I started strong but doom scrolling sort of took over my life the last couple weeks. Which did not foster the kind of imagination I am going for. I hope to finish these in the next few days and start some new things in February.

“The Most Beautiful Walk in the World” by John Baxter. It is about walking tours in Paris which is of course fostering my imagination about our upcoming trip to Dublin and Paris. Fun to read the various stories from the perspective of someone who grew up in Australia and lived in the US, before moving to Paris with his French wife. Reading stories of him learning about the culture, embracing it and being fascinated by it’s history and then sharing all of that with tourists as he walks around the city has been a fun adventure to go on.

I am listening to the audio book of “Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church” by NT Wright. Imagining a different version of heaven than I learned about in Sunday school. It’s something I have been thinking about and casually reading about/listening to things about for a few years. Seemed like it was time to get the scholarly/theologian point of view. This is what I listen to when I am walking on the treadmill in the mornings and sometimes when I am driving. It is deeper than most of what I listen to and takes more processing than I usually do while multi-tasking. So taking my time getting through it. I’m about a third of the way so far. Give me more than a few days to finish it.

I like to read other substack writers. My post on imagination sparked the imagination of a reader who also wrote about it here. Definitely worth a read along with her other stuff.

I’ve also read several writers suggesting that January is not the month to launch into a new year/life/plan. In the garden winter is the season of rest making January the perfect month to slowly and gently re-engage in work and life post holiday frenzy in preparation for the busy spring growing season (or real estate season). My friend Jen wrote about her winter garden here and I spent a fair amount of time thinking about being more gentle with my expectations during this month. I actually texted her and asked her to say more about it. She followed up with a second post here talking about the active work of resting. Both helped define what I thought about myself, my work, my productivity (or perceived lack thereof) during January. Not a frantic need to do all the things before spring or be a failure if you don’t, but a gift to spend time regrouping while waiting for the next season to come. Trusting the process. Exactly what I needed to hear this month.

Next month I hope to stimulate my imagination with more books on Paris and Dublin. John is reading “How the Irish Save Civilization” by Thomas Cahill. I will probably read it when he is done. And I am so close to being fully caught up on the Louise Penny series of books. (I might have read a couple of those at the beginning of January but I think I read them at the end of December. Who can remember such things.)

This is my next read.

Hopefully my friend will loan me the last 3 books she has in the series (hint). Binge reading a novel is a better use of my time that shutting down and doom scrolling. If I am going to do nothing and try to escape I might as well put my brain in a fun, familiar, fictional world. If you haven’t read any of the series just know I read the first 3-4 books while telling myself I hated all the characters but liked the mystery and good writing. After each one I would say it was my last and then a few months later, looking for a familiar read, I would pick the next one up. However, 15 books in I have discovered she writes such three dimensional characters, allowing them to be both good and messy, mean and loving, insecure and competent. Similar to us all. Usually we start a relationship by presenting our best sides but, she jumps right in to the fullness of who these characters are from the start. I realized I didn’t like them because I wanted a friendlier start. But I am messy and generally speaking I like messy people so these fictitious messy people have grown on me quite a bit. That said, other friends love them all from the beginning.

January was a no spend month for us. I was a little more generous than I meant to be at Christmas, not irresponsibly so, but also we bought a truck in December, and I just pretty desperately needed to not pull my card out in January. February 1st I was at Target replacing my depleting make up and then went online to order a couple books for my February reading.²

“Wintering” by Katherine May. I have heard good things about it and really want to read it in winter. I thought about getting the cheaper e-book but this felt like one I wanted to hold. It’s fun to read about winter in winter. It is not fun to read about summer in winter. One of the things I like about Louise Penny novels, they are set in Quebec and the writer clearly knows what it is like to live in this climate³, be cold and keep going anyway. Plenty of people write about winter and snow and cold but few seem to really understand the experience.

The other book I ordered is Beth Moore’s new bible study. I haven’t done a formal bible study in a few years and haven’t done one of her studies in almost 2 decades, maybe more. But, I have loved who she has become⁴ and have read and loved her more recent books, “Chasing Vines” and “All My Knotted up Life”. When she published a new bible study at the same time I was starting to think about finding something formal to work through it seemed like a no brainer. I am not doing it with a group but did text my friends telling them I didn’t want to carve out time to meet with anyone⁵ but am an out loud processor and would probably be sending my thoughts along the way. Be ready. ha ha

Going into February, besides reading, I am going to try my hand at some mixed media junk journaling. Once or twice a week while we are sitting watching mindless tv⁶ I want to sit in John’s studio space⁷ and work on little projects like that rather than scroll my phone⁸. Excited to try my hand at a new way of being creative. A little outside my comfort zone if I am honest but I can always keep it hidden just like I do with written journaling.

How are you fostering your imagination this month? Read any good books I should add to my TBR pile?

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2. As if I don’t have a large to be read pile…

3. Random Trivia. Montreal is actually further south than most of Minnesota. In fact most of the population of Canada lives further south than most of Minnesota. So basically we have the same weather.

4. She has actually become Anglican, which I didn’t know when I discovered how much I was enjoying this season of Beth but it does add a fun dimension. Another Baptist turned Anglican. She gets me. Or I get her? Either way we share a similar theological background, both love what we grew up with and both love what we are learning in this new denomination without feeling like we have to chose sides.

5. When you can tell your friends you don’t want to make time for them while simultaneously asking them to be prepared to make time for your thoughts you know you have found your people. ha ha

6. We are currently watching “The Great Pottery Throw Down”. Think “Great British Baking Show” but with clay instead of flour and sugar. 9 seasons on HBO Max should get us through the rest of the winter.

7. We continue to be amazed by how warm our basement is just adding a second cold air return to the space. The simple manipulation of the movement of warm and cold air and how it affects our ability to head spaces is crazy. When we first started working on the studio space we really thought we were going to have to add a second heat source. It was untenable in the winter. Yet, now, during the coldest spell so far this winter we comfortably hung out. $20. Can’t get over it. Also, Riss, sorry you had to live down there for a year in the cold…

8. Why am I looking at my phone while watching tv? Is this just me? Even as I do it I think it is weird.