When I was little, my mom always took me on the city bus (because my dad had our only car), in the hot summer sun, on the stinky bus, to the public library. We would come home with arm-loads of books. I would always do that summer reading program too at the library. I always loved getting the cool prizes. And they probably weren't even that cool. I bet they gave us library pencils and bookmarks. I always got the big old ribbon at the end though.
I read SO much in middle school. My mom thought I'd turn out like Suzanne and have everything read already by the time I was in college! But my appetite for reading somewhat died out when high school came around.
And I don't know, I still have enjoyed reading but I've just fallen out of it. It's hard sometimes when life is so busy.
Well last semester I read the Book of Mormon all the way through for the first time. And then I got this hunger for some more reading! Not long after that, a couple months ago I was at Deseret, and I saw a book that one of my seminary teachers had mentioned in my Sophomore year in high school. It's called History of Joseph Smith by His Mother Lucy Mack Smith.
And I remember I had always wanted to read it. Brother Franklin had always told the most interesting stories from it. So I bought it. And I loved it, I recommend it to everyone! Learned things I never knew...
THEN, all of my friends have been RAVING about these Twilight books (by Stephenie Meyer) lately.
And while I was in Mexico this Christmas, one of the girls had the first book Twilight there and so I read it. And LOVED it. So I went to a Bookstar and bought them all.
Since then, I have found my library card (a miracle in and of itself) and have read ALL my favorite books from middle school, and started to buy some new ones. I have discovered something. I love Teen Fiction/Fantasy. It's an easy read, and the subjects and settings are always ones I enjoy. I don't know, maybe because I don't feel like a grown up yet, or maybe because for some reason I was deprived as a teenager and I'm trying to live it out through my books. Or maybe it's because I can't get through a depressive, melodramatic, broken family book. I don't like books that focus on human psychology or are just a focus on human life. Reading is something I do to escape life, I don't want to read more about it! And I've always loved fantasy. Everyone who's anyone knows I used to draw unicorns 24/7 when I was a child. :)
But those aren't my only favorite. I love page turners as well. A good Michael Crichton or John Grisham novel will do the trick.
I love exciting books that have you surprised at every corner. That you can't wait to find out what happens next, or how it turns out. Ones where you cannot possibly see any way for the situation to resolve itself in the end. And yet it always does. I think that's what compels me to finish books, too, is the desire to find out what happens, no matter how bad the book.
Something else I have discovered... I seem to enjoy collecting series of books. I have 6 different series (counting the one I just bought). Well, theres this series called Sweep that aren't my favorite, I just want to find out what happens, but there's 14 books! And I only have 5. And it's not like the library has them all, they just have the first one. So I think once I have them all and find out what happens I'll sell them all. Or save them for another 6 years until I completely forget the story and have to read it again to find out what happens...
Apparently I have a weakness...
I completely cannot comprehend how you cannot enjoy reading though. For me, it's an escape from everyday life. It's a chance to get sucked into a world unlike your own, better than your own, more magical than your own.
Not that I'm completely happy with what I have... but sometimes, don't you just wish you could put spells on people? Or save your world from destruction? Or fall in love with a prince?
It's only in a good book you can find that.
3 comments:
Escape from the world? Oh no honey, that's why I watch TV.
Do you know what is a surprisingly good page-turner? Jurassic Park. Have you ever read it?
I am kind of sad that I only had a 25% success rate in having kids that loved to read. No, actually I am horrified. Do you know how many times we rode the city bus to the library? Yeah it was hot and stinky. But I longed to have that pile of books in your arms. Wait a minute, maybe it was the hot and stinky city bus that turned the other kids away from reading. Was that the demise of my beautiful plan. DARN that city bus!!!
(Actually, it was usually a fun adventure. There was the library, a Walgreens and a McDonalds all at one stop. And you guys loved to pull the cord for the bus stop.)
yeah, can you tell Katie is not a library lady? somehow she manages to get her kids excited about reading and takes them constantly to the library. But she doesn't enjoy reading either. Both of my boys are book lovers and I am too when I'm not reading college text books (ugh). I really enjoyed reading "these is my words" recently and then its sequel, "sarah's quilt"
Post a Comment