What I'm Reading

Dedicated to Stevie.  You and your tricycle changed my life.

I clearly remember the day I read a book by myself for the first time.  It was a weekend morning; my parents were still in bed and my older sister was probably concentrating very hard on Scooby Doo.  I picked up The Book and read the title all by myself.  Once the shock of my surprising ability to do that wore off, I opened the book and read the whole first page.  After that, I could no longer contain my excitement.  I quickly went into my parents' bedroom and woke them by re-reading the title and first page.  I got a few grunts and "mmm-hmm"s, but that was it.  I ended up reading the entire book without help (and earning the pride of my finally-awake parents), and have now spent the last 31 years with a book in my hand, on my mind, or both.

In high school and college, I wasn't required to read nearly as much as I wanted, so I feel like I'm still a little bit behind when it comes to the books everyone else has read.  In fact, the gaps on my list of books I've read sometimes make me quite sad.  Catcher in the Rye, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Hobbit, just to name a few.  I did choose The Scarlet Letter for my 9th grade book report, while everyone else was choosing books by Beverly Cleary or somesuch, but then my English teacher quit and then the next English teacher quit, and then the lady from the cafeteria became the English teacher and gave me a D on my report card (9th grade English was not good for me- when I get over it, I'll share the story) and then the Biology teacher switched to English, and probably I was supposed to learn about run-on sentences back then, but nobody ever taught me, nor did they properly critique my report on Hawthorne's book, so I didn't push the reading material envelope after that.

With this being a brand new blog and all, it is probably silly of me to plan gimmicks or regularly scheduled posts.  At this point, it's still a distinct possibility that this whole blogging thing will go the way of the newspapers my sis and I published when we were very young (ahhh- I was quite the Ace Reporter when it came to stuffed animal news), and not have a very long run.  However, I plan to share what I'm reading, along with the occasional book review, right here each week.

Husband gave me a Kindle Fire for Christmas in '11, which has been wonderful in so many ways.  Lately, I use it mostly to read (and play Scramble With Friends- user name rhirie- hit me up!) while I'm also reading actual ink-n-paper books.  This is the Kindle book I'm reading, and I just picked this one up in traditional format from the library for Book Club.  I recommend both.  The first, even though I'm only in the second chapter, was praised by my dad, and he's a smart guy who knows things.  The second I've actually read before, albeit years ago, and I know I enjoyed it very much.

This made me laugh.

Today's advice:  Read a book!  Who knows, maybe there is justice in the world, and every time someone reads a book, a Kardashian gets a pimple or gains a pound!

What was the first book you ever read?

What are you reading now?