I am that annoying person who can, and does, read just about anywhere. I carry a book in my purse and keep one on my bedside table. I listen to audiobooks in my car and when I’m on the treadmill. When people ask me if I've seen such-and-such TV show or movie I almost always shake my head. If there’s a choice between reading and just about anything else—I’m reading.
The first novel I ever read was
Bunnicula. A slim volume, only 128 pages, but it was the first book I had ever picked out and bought myself. (This was also the beginning of my fascination with book covers, and my collection of rare books and first editions, but I digress.) It was Saturday morning, and I’d just finished breakfast. Still pajama-clad, I grabbed my book and sat down on the couch. And stayed there. All day. Reading. I read the whole book that day.
Once I read
Bunnicula, I had to read the entire Bunnicula series. And then I read
The Secret Garden, and
The Island of the Blue Dolphins, and so on. From the moment I finished that first book, I’ve never been long without one.
The best part of being a young reader? The pizza! There was a program back in the late 80s—it actually still exists today, I just learned, though I guess now I’m too old to participate— called Book It! Every time you finished reading a book, you got a gold sticker. You put the sticker on a button that looked like this:
When you had 5 stars on your button, you cashed it in for a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut. Win!
I no longer get rewarded with pizza for reading, sadly, but I still read pretty constantly. I’ve set a goal of 100 books this year. I’m currently way behind; I’ve read 17 books in 6 months. Not bad, but less than my average. Chunksters like
The Land of Painted Caves and
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire have slowed me down.
What am I hooked on lately? Stacy Schiff’s
Cleopatra is a fascinating biography that reads like a novel. I’ve recommended it to almost every woman (and more than a few men) I know. Equally powerful is a collection of short stories titled
I Knew You’d be Lovely by Alethea Black. My most current audio book is book 5 of George R. R. Martin’s series
A Song of Ice and Fire. And I just picked up Tobias Wolff’s
Old School.
What are you reading? I’m always looking for the next great book! And if you’re as big a reader as I am, you may want to consider getting
OttLite to put in your favorite reading room. OttLite's High-Definition Lighting help you see small print without squinting. Better lighting means your eyes work more efficiently, so you can read longer with less eyestrain, which is a good thing when you’ve got a +1,000-page novel waiting on your bedside table.
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Laneta
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12 years 206 days ago
You've really captured all the essentalis in this subject area, haven't you?
