On Reading and Books.

I have not had much time to read lately. It might be more accurate to say that I haven't MADE much time for reading lately...lately, as in, the past year or so.

This is a very sad thing. As a kid (and those of you who knew me then can vouch) I was never without a book. Literally - NEVER. At the dinner table, at friends' houses, even in church if I could manage to get it past my mom's attention (which, rest assured, wasn't often).

Still, my first impulse when I want to know something about anything is to find a book. I love books. Not even because I love to read. I DO love to read, passionately. But the funny thing is, I love a book. I love the concept of pieces of paper with words written in a linear fashion and bound together. I love the smell and feel of paper. I love the sight of words on a page. I love words and language, period. I love the way they look on a bookshelf or in a stack on a table or strewn about beside the bed. I love that they contain information. It's always there...on every page. It doesn't go away or disappear just because that page isn't open at the moment. I have so many books at home...probably well over a thousand by now, most bought with my own money, even as a child. That is a lot of information! It makes me salivate intellectually, thinking of all the stuff there is to know that is already available to me, if I would take a moment and open the book and discover it.

Which brings me to what I was initially thinking about when I began this post. I never have (or make? whichever you want to say) time to read anymore. I can't remember the last time I actually finished a book. With the exception of books like Baby-Sitters' Club and Sweet Valley Twins, Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume, Roald Dahl and J.K. Rowling...you get the picture. Kids and fantasy books. I will never outgrow them. I started reading them before kindergarten and I will never stop. This is what I would write if I had the option. (And Grandmama, I know you're thinking it, if you're reading this right now...Yes. I have read them probably hundreds of times by now, and they only get better.)

I'm trying to get through Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover these days. It is actually much better than I ever expected it to be. Dave's style is informal and friendly but it certainly doesn't leave any room for misinterpretation about what he is trying to get across. He explains very clearly what the problems with money management are and gives hope for the future. I'm really enjoying it. The problem is...I'm about halfway done now and I'm losing steam. I need to finish this book. Not just because my money needs a major overhaul (and believe me, it DOES) but because I need a breakthrough in my reading life! I need to finish a book, one that I haven't already read 200 times and isn't targeted to a fifth grade audience! Why do I need this so badly, you might wonder? I think it's because reading is about not just this one hobby for me, but about all of my hobbies. I love to read, but I also need to read in order to develop my other interests. It's such a defining part of who I am that when I don't do it, I don't recognize myself.

I recommend the book, by the way. It's really great. I will probably be discussing some of the things I'm reading and learning in it at times here in the blog. Especially when I begin to see results.

I'll let you know how it goes.