Books and Reading

I have loved books for the majority of my life. Since I was very young, I have had what would probably be an obsession with books. This doesn't mean that I always enjoyed reading. I actually struggled when I was learning to read and it wasn't exactly my favorite thing to do, but I still loved books. Weird, I know.

Eventually, I got the whole reading thing down and have been on a roll ever since. I read everything, even cereal boxes... and I read those more than once, not on purpose though, only because they are in my face when I eat cereal. But I digress.

Anyway. One of the reasons I love to read is that my parents, particularly my dad. My Dad and I had a very special way of spending time together: he would read to me almost every night. This tradition stated when I was very young. So young that I could barely write my name on the check out card at our church library but that didn't matter. I can remember that although I could barely write my name, I would still check out a Nancy Drew Book (I felt very much like a big girl for choosing such a big book) and my Dad would ask, "Now, are you sure you want me to read this to you? It might be kind of scary.". But I told him that I didn't care and to read it anyway. (To this day, I still love Nancy Drew books.) This tradition with my Dad slacked off for a few of my teen years but right up until I got married, my Dad would still read to me and as I listened, I would work on a knitting project (yes, I know, I'm a very boring person) or something similar. 

I have always felt that the characters in books we my friends and that by reading books, I could be part of their story. It's time traveling and flying around the globe without buying the plane ticket or having a time machine. Bliss. 

For my college graduation, my husband bought me a Kindle eReader by Amazon. I had originally thought that I would never like an eReader because "I like to turn the pages. Books must have real pages and a real cover. Anything else is fake..."... Yeah. I was a book snob. And discovered that I was wrong about the Kindle after playing around with one. I LOVE my Kindle! {Please note, this is not an endorsement of any product. Amazon doesn't know me and doesn't care what I think.} I love that I can read a trial section to determine if I like the book and want to buy it. I love that it is so light and holds 3,500ish books. I love it. 

This is not to say that I don't still buy "real" books, you know, the ones with the cover and binding and pages made from paper. I definitely still love real books. I will always love real books and will continue to purchase them when I feel so inclined. 

My husband and I have quite a collection of books. See: 

What's kinda sad is that most of them are mine and that's only about 1/2 of the ones I own (most of my children's books are in storage). {The reason they are on the floor under a table is because we were painting the living room and had to more the book cases.}

Yes, we like to read. Yes, we like books. And yes, we are okay with that. I hope that someday we will instill in our future children a love for books and reading too. Silly, I know, but it's true. Then again, they might not stand a chance with book addicted parents like us! 

Happy Thursday!