I have rediscovered a long lost love of my life: books. When I was younger I would read all the time. The first real book I ever remember reading was Charlotte's Web. The first real book that I remember really loving and reading more than once (I hardly ever read books more than once) was Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird which I read in the 9th grade with the best English teacher I ever had. When I was still too little to read them, my grandmother bought me the entire set of Anne of Green Gables. I tried multiple times to start them, always having to stop because I had to look up too many words. When I was finally old enough to understand them, I loved every second of every book and fell in love with Anne and Gilbert.

In high school I started writing down in a list form the books I read during the school year and during the summer. Surprisingly at the end of each segment of the year, I had read about the same amount of books, 30 in the summer and 30 during the school year. Obviously all that school work slowed me down, but I still had time for pleasure reading. When Trent and I first met and I told him that I usually read 30 books in the summer, he was amazed. (I just did the math and that's 2.5 books a week.) I was shocked again when taking a Reading for Pleasure class in college and most of the girls said they read 2 or 3 books usually in the summer, none during the school year.

I understood their dilemma during the school year, though. For four years, I hardly read at all, other than school stuff. For each of my college years (other than when I was in France and gobbled up all the English books left in my room and all the English classics I found at the university library) I read about 2 or 3 books for pleasure. My major was huge into books and that's where all my time went. When you have to read over 100 pages each night in dense stuff, you don't really want to pick up a book, no matter how light, after you finish. I loved all the stuff I read for class and will never get rid of those books, but homework is homework.

Now that I'm done and started working at Barnes & Noble where books stare at me all day everyday, daring to be opened, browsed through, and remembered for later, I have again discovered my endless appetite for books. When I was younger I didn't like to start more than one book at once, but now I have lots of different books going for different moods and different places. I'm carrying around The Decameron in my purse for breaks at work. In class we only read selected stories, so it's fun to read them all in order. I also have Runemarks by Joanne Harris laying around waiting to be finished from when I started it last year. Another one laying around is a 1960s copy of William Shakespeare's Four Comedies that I couldn't part with when I sold all my books (I'm currently on A Midsummer Night's Dream.)

And finally, there are the books that I keep by my nightstand for right before I go to bed. These are the ones I think of as my current books. The others are there, but this is the one I pick up if I want to read. I recently finished The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett. I saw it at Barnes & Noble, read the sleeve and thought it looked good. It was very good. A True Crime story about a man who stole rare books. It was really cool to learn about the ins and outs of the rare book world especially in the context of people that steal them. Before this last one, I read Heather Armstrong (dooce) 's It Sucked and Then I Cried and Chelsea Handler's Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea. Both were awesomely funny and I loved them because they made me laugh out loud which is hard to do with a book.

If you hadn't noticed, I'm really excited again for books. For four years, I read because I had to and it was interesting and they were still books, but it wasn't choice. Now, I get to read because I want to again and there are so many books that I want to read; it's sad to think I'll never even hear of all the ones I'd be interested in, let alone get around to reading them all. But, I can try.

So, tell me. What are you reading? What are your favorite books? What have you recently fallen in love with? What would you recommend I read?

3 comments

1. ~ Junkyard Jennifer on November 3, 2009 5:19 PM

   I wish I could be writing this post right now, with a reawakened love for reading.
   
   Sadly, I haven't read a book in years. Actually, I should say I haven't been an avid book reader in years--probably about 6 or 7. (I've read here and there, occasionally.)That is so sad because I used to LOVE to read. It was one of my favorite things to do.
   
   I just never take the time to read anymore and when I have a few minutes, I generally flip mindlessly through a stack of magazines--mostly for decorating or design ideas.
   
   This post is very inspiring. I'm hoping to learn how to sew--and to start reading again, this winter. Two goals I've had on my list for a while.
   
   ~ Jennifer

    
2. urban craft on November 5, 2009 9:16 PM

   oh my gosh, there is actually a book called
   "Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea"
   I totally am going to get that.

    
3. prashant on December 25, 2009 10:03 AM

   wish I could be writing this post right now, with a reawakened love for reading.
   Make website india