Oh, How I Love Reading

I’m a book hoarder. I love to own them – kindle editions and the good ‘ole classic paper kind. I see a title and plot that peaks my interest, and I snatch it up…only for it to sit in a pile or inside my Kindle for months. OK, some of them years.

I've been an avid reader since I was a child. I love a good story. Both of my parents passed on a deep love of reading to me. I’m passionate about the English language and get the greatest satisfaction out of finding an error in a book that an editor didn't catch. It comes close to making me feel like a super hero. (And yes, I absolutely know how geeky that makes me. Word-nerd is my label of choice, if you must throw stones.)

Now I come to the reason that my stack of books is so high. Children. One word, but many reasons balled up into those sweet, sticky little high-energy bodies. Books I could have read in a week now take a year, or I forget that I was reading them before I can even finish. Hell, I've even started books that I have read before and not realized it until at least chapter five.

The past few years I have found myself LIVING for vacation. Yes, to spend time with my family and to play with my children for a week without saying, “I can’t right now, honey. Mommy has work to do.” But secretly, I get equally as excited about all the time I will have for reading! GLORIOUS reading! I know that I will get absorbed in and actually COMPLETE at least two books. Heaven.

On our most recent vacation I read “The Rescue” by Nicholas Sparks and “Summer Rental” by Mary Kay Andrews. Both were excellent. My mother introduced me to Mary Alice Monroe recently, and I just started “The Summer Girls.” I love a quirky southern tale. Hopefully I will have this one done before next summer.

I confess that I DO still get to read on a daily basis. G and I are making our way through all of the Magic Tree House books together. Though they may not be what I would choose to pour over all the time, as we read together and he asks for “just one more chapter,” I know that I am doing something important. I’m instilling that same spark that’s in me in my child. And that’s what’s important right now. Can’t wait to see where Jack and Annie will go in that tree house tonight. (Rumor has it they’ll be boarding the Titanic!)

Some of our Magic Tree House collection (with a gargoyle to protect it)