Booking Through Thursday...Being a Reader

I love BEING a reader and simply can’t imagine what it’s like to go through life without being one.

Am I the only one who feels this way? That wonders at how other people can simply NOT do something that should be so essential? Who feels almost sad that so many people seem content to go through their lives without stretching their mental wings at all?

Can you imagine NOT being a Reader? How does it shape your life? Your perception of it? How does being a Reader affect your relationship with all those folks who are looking at it from the other side and simply can’t understand how you can sit and READ all the time?

I love this question.  My earliest memories involve reading.   There is a reason that my favorite elementary teacher was the school librarian.  I would get all my work done in class, just so I could read a book.  One year, my teacher called my mom because I was reading in class and she wanted me to stop because, to the other children, it looked like I was reading and hadn't done my work.  My mother's response was incredulous, "You have a child who loves to read and you want her to stop?"  My mom's suggestion was to just send me to the library when I finished all my work.  I had my favorite books memorized before I could read and I always got a new book in my Easter basket, in my Christmas stocking, for a reward or accomplishment.

The books I read so completely shaped me and affected me and my perceptions of people as I was growing up.  I learned a lot about personal interaction by the way book characters behaved.  I loved reading because I could connect with book characters.  Sara Crewe, in A Little Princess, for example.  I was a pretender, just like her.  I had a completely different life inside my head most of the time and so did Sara and it was ok!

I don't remember reading as much in high school, but I'm sure I did and I read all the time in college.  My major was English, but my roommate and I would read romance novels as a way of escaping the required reading and we were regular visitors to a small, used bookstore where we could trade in books for credit.

I have some girlfriends who I share books with, because I get so many for review and I love loaning them out and having friends who love to read, just like I do.

My boys are readers and so is my husband.  It's not uncommon to see a couple of us sitting in the living room, each reading our own book, but still together.

I can't imagine not being a reader.  I can't imagine not wanting to read.  It's so much a part of my soul.  I often hope that there is a great big library in Heaven, because I imagine I will still want to read!

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Comments

  1. I am so jealous that your husband is a reader! I try so hard to get my husband to read, but he just doesn't! I'm hoping that my girls will take after me!

    BTW, I agree with your mom. That was so crazy that your teacher wanted you to stop reading when it's so hard to get kids interested in reading these days.

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  2. One of my biggest fears has always been not being able to read, for whatever reason....blindness, etc.

    It would definitely feel like a piece of my soul were missing if I couldn't read.

    Here's MY BTT POST

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  3. It's great that you are a family of readers.

    http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2012/11/booking-through-thursday_29.html

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  4. Life without books would be dull indeed. I think readers are so much more rounded than non-readers. I love the worlds books take me to.

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  5. Thanks for stopping by my blog! I enjoyed reading your response and all I can say is good for your mother! My son's kindergarten teacher was very aggravated by my son because he could read already and she told him to stop because it wasn't legal for her to teach reading in kindergarten! I wish I had you mom's response!

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  6. I really enjoyed reading your answer to the questions today. It is so nice to hear that your whole family loves reading together.

    Thanks for the visit today.

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  7. Wonderful memories! I agree with you mom and it's crazy for anyone to try to stop a kid from reading, let alone a teacher.

    Thanks for stopping by on my blog.

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  8. I love your Mom's response! A book in an Easter basket - that's the cutest thing I read today. Lovely!

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  9. Wonderful answer. I love that you read romance novels as a way of escaping required reading. It's great that there are so many books out there to fit our moods!
    Thanks for stopping by. I'm following you now via GFC.

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  10. My one kid is not a reader and the other one is. I read to both of them when they were young and they see me reading all the time. I continue to ask the question, Are readers born or bred? I still don't know!

    I have loved reading for as long as I can remember. That, I know.

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