book me!
Who likes that reading action?
I used to read a lot. Not as much as many but more than
many. I found it relaxing and entertaining, and often edifying or
enlightening. I loved it when I'd be in the middle of a book that I was
constantly looking forward to exploring further the next time I'd be in
bed early or have a chunk of down-time.
Now the only thing that has
changed is the amount of time (and hence the
quantity of written word) available for reading.
And in this situation I've found that I tend to be
much more sensitive about what books I spend my time reading. For
example, I recently finished "The National Treasury of Short Stories," and
I personally (and honestly) think I have written better stuff than 75% of
what's in there. So when I finished I thought to myself, "Self, you
deserve to read things that you really ENJOY reading."
Aptly, I just finished "The Life of Pi," which was
thoroughly enjoyable and held my attention tenaciously. Now what? I have
a list of books I want to read because I think they'd be good to read (as
in they could be "good for my life" in the areas of my relationship with
God and others and general peace) and I have a list of books I want to
read because I enjoy them. And it seems they keep coming - I recently
told someone I'd read "Angels and Demons" and received a book on getting
works published. I still want to finish all of Ray Bradbury's works in my
lifetime but that's been on hiatus for about a year now.
Now, perhaps this sounds like I'm reading into things
too much (get it, READING into things?!) but it's my classic dilemnas of
"should" versus "want." I feel like I should read the first list
of books
because it's the responsible, serious, mature thing to do. But I
want to read other things. And reading other things motivates me
to continue reading more.
Though I don't have that figured out, right now I'm
reading a book about martyrs, called "Jesus Freaks." I'm confident this
particular read would fit on both lists, since it prompts me to think of
God and at the same time is fascinating. Let me know if you want to
borrow it.
So, as Martin Short would say, "BOOK ME!"
odometer (guestbook)
cloud watching