Thursday, May 10, 2012

I am addicted to reading and I LOVE IT!

As far back as I can remember, my all time favorite thing to do is to curl up with a good book. Even back in my own school days I can remember spending every spare minute in the school library or in some corner of the playground reading whatever I could get my hands on. My favorite school librarian loved me as I was one of those students who was always in the library, scanning the shelves for something new. She even got to know my tastes and would set aside certain books for me to try. I remember those school libraries fondly, especially the one at the school I attended for the upper elementary/junior high years.

I have had times when I've read a book so much that it starts falling to pieces. That would definately apply to my much loved set of The Little House on the Prairie books. They are all the ones that my parents originally bought me and I am so proud to see them on my daughter's bookshelf. Several of them no longer have covers and I have no idea what became of them, lol! I've thought about replacing them with copies in better condition but I just don't want to. It feels like a betrayal of an old friend to toss out the old and replace with newer and nicer. Plus I like seeing my name written in the clumsy signature of a kid just learning to write in cursive.

I have old favorites and new favorites, all friendly faces that I read over and over again. Lots of times I will no sooner have finished the last book in the series than I pick up the first one and start all over again. I get that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when I'm reading the last book, the feeling you get when that long awaited vacation to your favorite place is coming to a close and you aren't ready to go home just yet. Some of my favorite series are: The Little House series plus all the spin-off series (I'm in the middle of the Rose years now), Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, Ramona Quimby. Then there are my favorite authors that I will read anything they've written: Jane Austen, Maeve Binchey, Frank Peretti, Bryan Davis (actually got to meet him in person, very sweet man!).

My tastes range all over and I'm not confined by one specific genre at all. I made a promise to myself a couple years ago to seek out classics and read at least one or two a year. My school years didn't involve reading as much as it did when my parents grew up and I felt I'd really missed out. Through that promise I met such characters at Natty Bumpo, Sherlock Holmes, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, Tess Durbeyfield and many others. Although one advantage of discovering these characters and books in my adult years is I have an understanding of the stories that I could never have as a child or teenager.

My husband tends to tease me about my reading as I can get easily lost in a book. It's just a passion. To read, to expand my world to other places and times. I simply enjoy it. To know me is to know how much I love to read. Magazines and newspapers and internet forums and other publications have their place. But nothing is dearer to my heart than a beautifully written story.

No comments: