Books

I am a bibliophile.

bib·li·o·phile (bĭb'lē-ə-fīl') n.
1. A lover of books.
2. A collector of books

Give me a good book and I can block out the world for hours or days. Even a so-so book I’ll usually read to the end. Those are actually pretty nice because it doesn’t make my entire world stop.

My “need” for reading comes in waves usually. I always have to have something to read so I have books and magazines stashed all over the house, in my car and usually something in my purse. I can easily have four books going at once depending on where I am.

Then there comes “A” book. One of those all-consuming, can’t put it down, don’t care if people around me are hungry, what is wrong with wearing dirty socks, hope the health department doesn’t come by – books. It doesn’t have to be a national bestseller or even a terribly great book, just one that catches my imagination. There is no specific genre that does it and no particular author.

This weekend I had such a book. Started it on Saturday afternoon after pulling it at random from a stack of books that my cousin, Beth had given me last Thanksgiving. Just wanted something to have “in case” I had a spare 5 minutes somewhere. Then I got sucked in.

Sunday I was totally worthless. All I wanted was to sit on the couch and read. I didn’t take a shower, I didn’t change out of my jammies and I didn’t even eat until around 2 o’clock. I forced myself to put the book down for a little bit in order to do a couple of loads of laundry and visit with my children, but that was pretty much it. After baths I sat on the couch “for just a few minutes” while Bob watched some tv. I seemingly blinked and an hour had passed.

It reminded me of when I was in middle and high school and my mom would take my book away from me and put it on the fridge so I would actually do my chores. I thought she was so mean when she did that. I didn’t recognize I had issues at that point. Recognizing your addiction is the first step towards recovery, right?

This insane love of reading runs in the family. Katya is a book addict along with my aunts, cousins and nephews. Not sure if it is nature or nurture – but when Bob asked me about that Muzzy early reading system I laughed. I seriously don’t think that Alexis or Logan will be needing any assistance to try and get them to read any earlier than they normally would. I told him that the important thing is the LOVE of reading. The skill comes from practice, not from regurgitation of sight words when you are 3. The short ones already love books. They will both sit with their favorite books and make up stories to go with the pictures. They will bring stacks of books for use to read at night before bed. I’m not worried.

So, although my life can become totally derailed for a good story it is nice to know that someday we will all be sitting on the couch with our noses in our books and I can call it “educational”. And some day when they are forced to read books that they don’t like, they won’t be intimidated. Even books that are really, really long won’t seem like a problem. That just makes for a longer story and that is always a good thing, right?