“I read every day”, I explained to my 12 year old’s disbelief. “Every single day”, and I do…with pleasure.
Last month, I was craving a new book when my thoughts turned to our local Borders. As I weighed the damage that a stop into the Pleasure Chamber could and would cost me, (PC = coffee + new books + comfy chairs + no memory of how much money I spent until the sugar latte buzz wears off and I am safely at home), I remembered the line I try to always feed my own kids when they want new books :
“Finish all the books on your shelf before you buy new ones.”
Damn me to heck!
As it turns out, not really. I dusted off my bountiful bookshelf and discovered 4 books that I got as hand-me-downs and never read.
Memoirs of a Geisha
Three Junes
Summer Sisters
The Poisonwood Bible
Treasures right there in front of me and I didn’t even know it. Amazing.
So I read them all (actually currently reading the last one so don’t ruin it for me) and you know what? I’ve been feeling a bit jealous of myself. You know how you feel when someone tells you that they are reading your favorite book for the first time? You envy them that experience. I guess I take it a step further. When I get my nose in a book that’s 14k, I take pause like many of us do at a brilliant sunset. I am aware that the words I am about to read and the journey that I am about to allow my mind embark upon is a precious gift to only be had in the original, pure sense once and never again. I become a book virgin, if you will.
So I’m almost done with my books and still scarlet from the experience but this habit only leads to wanting more of the juice. I did make that Border’s trip and I’m not going to tell you how much I spent. I’m sure I will enjoy my purchases and then pass on the books to my mother or sister as I usually do. And I will be jealous of them as they reach out and accept my gift.
What about you? Do you read every day? Are you a habitual reader? A Book Virgin? Do tell.
I am a voracious reader. I read a book a day, sometimes more, sometimes less depending on book length and my state of affairs. But I read every day, bar none. I can’t go to sleep unless I read.
However, I don’t buy that many books. Between the Mothertalk books I review, and the dozen or so books I take out of the library every other week, I’m all set for most of my reading. I only buy books these days when I absolutely MUST read something and it isn’t yet available in the new book room at the library. Which is rare. But it happens.
I don’t buy books because there is just no place else to put them. We have large bookcases in every room of our house, even the dining room. We have a full hallway lined with bookcases. Honestly, we need to get rid of books, not keep accumulating them. javascript:moreSmiliesAappendSmiley(’
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Oh, I don’t think I could go a single day without both reading and music. TWO of the books on your list are sitting on my bookshelf right now.
Okay, I’m lying. They’re in a pile in FRONT of the bookshelf that sits in the dining room, because the shelves are double-packed and crammed full.
Good thing about Borders & Waldenbooks…you get that little thingy that goes on your keychain and you GET REWARDS FOR BUYING BOOKS.
It’s like a little slice of heaven.
Funny, just last week I decided to read all the books I’ve bought in the past few years before purchsing new ones. I wanted to make a summer reading list out of them.
Everyday. Even if it is just a few pages before I fall asleep. I hate finishing a good book beccause I feel so invested with the characters. Poisonwood Bible was like that.
I love to read, but I’m wicked cheap. I get most of my books from the library — unless I just HAVE to have them… like Harry Potter. I purchase all my Harry in hardcover…
I can’t even wait for the new Harry to be released!!!
I read in spurts. Sometimes I read 2 or 3 books concurrently… Sometimes I read one at a time… it just depends on how busy I am.
I am an English/Literature teacher, so reading is my middle name. I quit my middle school job to teach at the high school, so I will be doing a lot of reading this summer to refresh myself. I may try to slip in a couple of my girlie summer reads though! :giggle:
Hello, my name is Tracye and I am a ‘reading junkie’. Ha! Seriously though, I read EVERY day and I usually have several books/blogs/mags going at once. Historical romance, self help, mysteries, horror, photoshop, dog training, magazines, cereal boxes, you name it. I NEED to start going to the library but since my mom is also an avid reader we trade back and forth then when we are done I sell them to Half Price Books. It helps. Last night I made an emergency run to the grocery store with the excuse of “we are out of antiseptic” (????? Well, it worked!) since I had just finished the last book in my stash. My husband isn’t a reader and doesn’t understand my addiction, but when we go somewhere where he can’t get cell phone service and he gets the shakes, I figure that is the closest he will ever come to understanding!
I’m a freak and proud of it, just ask my husband. We actually started a library in my office here at work..bring a book, take a book. It’s awesome. We have all sorts of things, “brain candy”, murder mystries, great literature etc. Right now I am reading, “The Other Boleyn Girl” which is based on the true story of Anne Boleyn’s sister Mary and her affair with Henry VIII. Awesome read. I also finished all the Harry Potter Books which I really enjoyed. I have been like this since I was a kid in grade school, Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret? The Scholastic Book people were excited to get my little order form!
Hey MP,
I read “The Other Boleyn Girl”. It was great. Other good books by that author are “The Queens’ Fool”, “The Virgin’s Lover” and “The Constant Princess”.
(Oh yeah, Scholastic Book’s people loved me too!)
I read ALL day long:
* while brushing my teeth
* while drying my hair
* while visiting the ladies room
* at the stop light
* in the carpool line
* anytime there is a wait
* of course, before I go to bed. I’m with Margalit - can’t sleep with out reading.
Read last week: Bleachy Haired Honkey Bitch by Hollis Gillespie (funny, but too much of the same), The Year of Magical THinking by Joan Didion (beautifully sad) and Glass Castles, don’t remember the author and haven’t finished it. It’s a go to the store today and buy.
Lucky you in finding such treasures. I love reading and have read those Tracy mentioned. I’m on ‘The Book Thief’ now, and will be reading ‘Forever Amber’ soon and ‘The Boleyn Inheritance.’
I, too, love to read. I don’t have much time during the school year and while taking grad classes, but I do read a lot over the summer. Today is the first day of summer vaca for me so I am ready to put my nose into several books!
I’m with Bitsy, except I try not to read anything more than the map when I’m in my car. I remember actually grieving when I realized I was close to the end of James Joyce’s Ulysses, and that exact experience would never come again. But there have been many others since then that I literally could not put down until I finished them. A lot of my books end up with wrinkled pages because they were read while I did the dishes, washed my face, or did other water activities. I figure it’s better to crinkle up the book than to crinkle up my mind.
I was an avid reader until I started blogging. Now most of my reading is done with a flashlight in my kid’s room waiting for them to fall asleep.
You know there are only so many movies..and good TV shows but I don’t think we’ll ever run out of books. It’s also something you can get free at the library…and you can read at your own pace :winking:
Oh, the Poisonwood Bible is lovely but haunts me to this day! Be careful!!!
I love to read and I really miss it. I keep buying books when I already have a shelf full that I haven’t read. I’m hoping this summer I can really read.
What books would you recommend as must reads?
I read at bedtime but am going to have to stop doing that because by the time I’m actually in bed…I can only read about a page and a half. Never going to finish Eragon that way.
I’m happy you are working your way through the Poisonwood Bible. I found myself depressed and not wanting to read it too many days. So I boxed it up and gave it back to my mother. Maybe some day I’ll try again but for now…I just can’t do it man!
I read every day. I’m completely addicted to books. And I love that feeling you’re talking about. It draws you in, reaching the end of the book is almost disappointing because… what? There’s no more? What else happens!?
I try, oh, I try to read everyday — tho’ it’s usually just a few minutes before bedtime. But, if you have to pick just one of those you dusted off for your summertime reading list, you MUST choose The Poinsonwood Bible. It is fabulous! :slaphappy:
I’m a total bookworm, but it’s hard right now to find as much time to read as I’d like. I LOVED Memoirs of a Geisha. Try The Secret History by Donna Tartt. It is awesome.