I’ve always enjoyed reading but it wasn’t until we were living in Alexandria, Egypt that it became a true habit and force in my life. I was 11. We had no TV and no phone! What’s a kid to do? Well, we went to the library at the school and checked out books! I read every Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mystery that was written along with a myriad of other books. In my 6th grade class my teacher encouraged reading. Each time we finished a book we got a cut out of one of the letters of our name with the title of the book on it. This letter was put up on the wall in our classroom. Eventually everywhere we looked, we saw our names spelled out!
I got away from regular reading in college as I was busy studying specifically per my course outlines. After graduation, I did read but have to admit that TV became a bigger part of my life. It is amazing what one can accomplish when the TV is turned off!! I don’t think I’ve ever actually tried to articulate what reading means to me until I started writing this. I know I’ve always enjoyed it. I learn a lot when I read. Words have power. The way information is presented, stories are shared and words are used can touch you and change you in ways you never thought possible.
A few years ago, I began keeping track of the books I was reading. I was curious to see how many I was reading. I read 42 in 2008, 44 in 2009 and 53 in 2010. Last year was the first time I actually set a goal of how many to read – it was 50. Keeping a list also enlightened me as to what I was reading. This year I would like to read less what I call frivolous books and read more books that bring some sort of enlightenment or learning into my life. I’m also trying to consistently read 3 books at once: a frivolous, a spiritual and one specific for learning something I am interested in.
Previously I kept a List of the books on my MSN Space. They recently changed their format and I lost the capability. I decded to transfer it here to my Blog. This is a blessing in disguise because I will now have a lot more space if I want to give a proper book review! I need to do a bit of catching up as far as writing the blog goes – I’ve already read 11 books this year! Here goes…
