Here I go again, sharing secrets in the safest place ever… (you know, the Internet).
Also, this post is a few hours late. Sorry. The dog did NOT eat my homework, but this DID actually happen:
And now, back to our regularly scheduled program:
About five dogs, one husband, and four kids ago, I was an English major in college. Well, actually a dual major in English and Communication.
Who cares, right?
The only reason I mention it is because this month’s “Where Blogger’s Live” is about “favorite books.” A former English major should have lots of favorite books.
Reading a great book is a VERY immersive experience for me. When I read a good book, the author helps me see everything; there are no pictures, of course, but it all plays out in my head like a movie. I love seeing how someone tells a story; how an author takes a plot and fills it with details and sub plots and tangents,
I like how the storyteller doesn’t simply tell you a person was shaving, for example. He describes the feel of a razor and how it glides over a cushion of soft foam while clearing the steely topography below… as the scent of eucalyptus fills the air…reminding him of that trip to the Outback where….
NO…not in one hastily constructed run-on sentence, of course. But the author’s imagery makes me see all of it.
(By the way, Leslie Clingan at Once Upon a Time and Happily Ever After is VERY skilled at this! Be sure to visit her blog and look for her short stories..all excellent five-minute reads!)
When I read a book, I’m all in…can’t put it down…want to know…NEED to know… what happens next.
I don’t just enjoy, I devour. And obsess. I go to bed then open the book under the covers and use a flashlight to keep reading until sleep forces me to stop. Or, I don’t go to bed at all… and “I’ll just finish this chapter” turns into “just one more” and suddenly the sky isn’t dark any more. I stay up all night, put off chores the following day, finally find out what happens next… and am dead on my feet and useless until I get some sleep.
Essentially, I’ve taken something fun and enjoyable and wrecked it due to lack of discipline.
(Who here sees a trend?)
And THAT is why I can’t remember the last time I read a book. Like, years, I think.
There, the secret is out. Go ahead, Judge me.
There are a million or so books exchanged in my family. Dozens of referrals are currently sitting in a bag in our office. Will I ever get to one?
Well, I just endured an entire year of staying home due to a pandemic and never even thought to read. Wow, that’s tragic.
I just dismissed the notion like a weight watcher passes on cake. Wistfully. Looks delicious, but I couldn’t just have a taste, then I’d want a slice, or maybe two, or the whole thing.
(Come to think of it, that IS how I eat cake. Now I want cake.)
So, that’s my sad, illiterate story. I have no books to recommend. Although I’ve probably read several since, the last books I remember reading were the Harry Potter series, which of course, I greatly enjoyed,…until my kids ran out of clean socks and underwear. (Just kidding. Sort of. Almost.)
But you know who DOES have books to recommend? My smart, cerebral friends! So be sure to check out:
Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Bettye at Fashion Schlub
Leslie at Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After
Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
And when we eventually write about “What I’m Watching,” we’ll talk.
Welcome to the monthly edition of “Where Bloggers Live.” It’s kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…Bloggers! Who doesn’t like to peek behind the scenes and see inside people’s homes? In this series, a group of six bloggers share their workspaces, their homes, towns and more!
Make sure you visit everyone to see where the magic happens!
This surprises me. You… Clever of wit… Wordsmith extraordinaire… YOU do not READ? Reading is such a great escape from life crap. Don’t you want to escape? Have you no life crap? I thought everyone had life crap…
Maybe you need a Kindle. Have you got a Kindle? I think you should get a Kindle…
(This comment was not sponsored by Amazon.)
An escape would be a blissful option to my currently overcommitted, underdisciplined life. I know there will be time again for reading, but it ain’t now (see, not reading hasn’t affected my grammar in the least). Fortunately, I have several fun blogs to read…so I do read SOME quality material…just not books. Plus, by the time I get back to it, all of the modern classics will have been identified and I won’t have wasted my time on the snoozers…so that’s a plus, too.
My sweet friend, what a surprise to discover that you don’t read. Although, I don’t read like you would expect a librarian to read, either. There are so many other things I want to do, too!! Sitting (which is the easiest position for reading for me…since I nod off when I lay down to read) is not something I relish doing for hours on end. So I don’t spend much time reading.
Thank you for the kind words about my stories. I have missed writing them. Seem to be caught up in doing link ups on all kinds of things and not really writing much on my blog. It is not a path I want to continue. Hope to get back to writing this coming month.
Let you in on a little secret…this librarian did not read the first Harry Potter book (or the second, etc., etc.). My daughters continue to chastise me for it. I have promised to at least listen to the first one. Knowing that you read them and enjoyed them enough to be pulled away the pleasure of laundry, gives me real hope for them!! Big hugs to you!!
Yes! It’s all those other things that are the problem! That, and my inability to put a book down when I’m hooked….and I’m almost always hooked.
I did read a lot of the books my girls were reading for school…it was really fun for us to be able to talk about them. We read a LOT of Jodi Picoult, who I really loved for her ability to make us consider both sides of highly controversial issues with empathy for both sides. We tend to be pretty opinionated here (my gosh, who isn’t these days), but so few things are cut and dry and that bears remembering. Her stories always alter my perspective.
Hope things are going well for your family!
Hey, when I was working, I didn’t read much either. I think our life is full of cycles or stages, and there are times it just doesn’t fit in with everything else.
I remember when my friend in Denver asked me to be in the book club while I was still working. And I just couldn’t do it (at least I knew how to say no). But then when I retired, I was all in.
You’ll get back to it and now you have lots of recommendations!!
XOOX
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
PS. SOrry for the late comment but I was trying hard to enjoy our little time away!!
Your comment isn’t as late as mine, haha. Since I don’t work it seems like I should have more reading time…but, now that you mention it, I kind of think blogging is actually what has replaced it. I DID read a lot more before I started playing with this adventure…(and even used to blog MUCH more frequently than I do now). But between the family obligations and my 927 hobbies, it just doesn’t fit in these days. HOWEVER, everyone’s posts included books I read or experiences I had with books…and those Scholastic clubs you mentioned brought VERY vivid memories back to life.
Aww, now I’m sad.
And I want cake.
Bettye 🙁
You are sad because I don’t read? It’s okay. I’ll try it again some time. The post made me just confess it to my brother. He was fairly horrified.
I LOVE cake. The real kind of love where you are always friends. Don’t you make an orangey peachy ice creamy cake…or was that a sundae of some kind? I like those, too.
Either way, we should have cake and sundaes together. We could do it via zoom.