All right, it might not sound as sexy as the tag line from "Top Gun", but I'm not sure I can picture Tom Cruise saying it my way, either in or out of character. Can you?
My recent sabbatical from books has got me thinking - and we all know how dangerous that can be! - why do you read? Is it because it's something you "have" to (i.e. classwork, career, etc.), something "everyone else has read", so you figure you ought to as well, so you can keep up with the conversation, or because cracking open a book, whatever it might be, is cheaper than therapy and has kept you from a life of crime? Or, maybe I really am alone in that last category. ;)
I've never been much on television. I just don't "get" the popular sitcoms and precious few dramas. Sometimes, it's read or just stare at the wall. And if you do that for too long, the rest of the family starts getting nervous. The fact that I had an imagination that was constantly dreaming up new worlds probably helped in my love of good stories. While not quite as extreme, I can relate pretty well to L.M. Montgomery's Anne Shirley. I get busy, and life does get in the way, but I do feel better when I can make time to sit with one of my favorite stories.
Anyway, these are just a few random thoughts going through my head, in part because I will be starting on the "Shakespeare in a Year" challenge tomorrow, as well as having just seen the mini-series of "Anne of Green Gables" on PBS. It's got me thinking I might dig out my old series and dust it off for the upcoming Whimsical Wednesdays, although that does seem a bit too planned out. Still, it's been a while since I've read it. As for Shakespeare, it's looking as though Richard II will be the choice for the group this week, so I think I'll also pull out A Midsummer Night's Dream as one of the "catch-up" readings. I don't think I want to dive into two serious works at the same time.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
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I guess I read because I'm driven to - it's the one thing in my life I never get tired of doing. I read in the bathroom (tmi perhaps), I read before I fall asleep, I read on weekend mornings when I don't have errands to run. I can't remember a time when I haven't read. But I don't get into reading "trends" - I didn't start reading Harry Potter until August 2005 (and only then because I was having a severe allergic reaction to an antibiotic and literally couldn't get out of bed - and I finished the book I had been reading, and the only book nearby was "Sorcerer's Stone," which had been loaned to me by a friend). I read the first book of Twilight only because my friends raved about it - and after reading the first book, I quit. I read mainly non-fiction, and people don't gravitate toward what I read - "brain food" - books on bees or nature or coal mining or soldiers in World War 2 or 'Nam or Iraq and Afghanistan (I recently picked up a book on the Korean War) - I could go on with examples. I can't imagine my life without books. I don't *want* to imagine my life without books.
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