Day 170
I am not a reader. Well, let me rephrase that … I do not ALLOW myself to be a reader.
Basically because I get so absorbed I don’t do anything else. The house gets dusty, the animals go hungry, I stay up far too late (or early) … it’s not pretty.
I am one of those that says, “Oh, I’ll just read one more chapter and then go to bed.” And 2 hours and umpteen chapters later I’m still up and it’s 3am and I’m telling myself, still, “Oh, I’ll just read one more chapter and then I’ll go to bed.” It hasn’t happened often, but, on occasion, dawn has found me still reading. NOT a good thing if I want any semblance of a decent day!
It’s ridiculous! So, I, sadly, don’t allow myself the pleasure of reading as often as I would like … or actually should. I have no self-control. I’m a reading addict! I just don’t know when to stop!
I read magazines. I read catalogs. But that’s not reading … that’s flipping through pages of stuff and relaxing before bed.
In one of the magazines tonight I saw a picture of a bulletin board that had a note on it that read: REREAD YOUR FAVORITE NOVEL.
It made me think. What would I read? Reread?
The classics come to mind … but then I hate/have to admit … I haven’t read them yet … so, I can’t “reread” them. They are … and have been … on my list … forever. I can’t count the number of times I’ve pulled out Emma or Jane Eyre and put it on my nightstand … only to put it back on the shelf a month or so later – still unopened.
The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables, Mandy, Little Women, Under the Lilacs … those old-fashioned romantic novels of days gone by sound enticing. They are transporters … they take me back to a time of simplicity and lace and lovely verbiage.
The Borrowers, Charlotte’s Web, Pippi Longstocking, The Dog on Barkham Street, all the Miss Pickerell books and the My Father’s Dragon trilogy … all books from my youth. Read and reread and reread again … any of those would be fun. When I was little I spent many summer days up in the front maple reading away in my leafy, cool aerie. Later, as an adult, I used to reread all of my favorite childhood books every summer … but after Tim died I kind of stopped doing that.
I’ve read several Dan Brown novels – devoured those actually. Those were dusty and dog-hungry days! Michener … he’s always good for some scenic adventure, buffaloes churning up prairie dust, wagon wheels creating ruts in the rocks, history lessons painted with words. Grisham … action-packed and involved and with so many twists and turns even the best sleuths are kept guessing. And Crichton … thrilling, heart-stopping books and hey- ya can’t go wrong with dinosaurs eating people!
Then there are the sets of series (which you really should read in order to enjoy them the most) … The Cat Who mystery books by Lilian Jackson Braun. I LOVE those. All 20 some of them! I haven’t read those in a long time and every once in a while I find myself wondering how Quill and Polly and the cats are doing? (Um, they are fictional book characters, you goofball head!) The Goldilocks catering books are great, too … easy, fun mysteries by Diane Mott Davidson. I liked those a lot because there were recipes in them and it was set in a fictional town in the Colorado mountains but had references to Denver. And, a friend turned me on to Jan Karon and the Mitford series. I STILL want to live there. They are LOVELY books.
And yet, with all these choices … I don’t know what I’d reread first. What I should reread first. What I will reread first.
What would you reread?