FOR THE LOVE OF READING

I am going to give you fair warning. I am not exactly sure where this post is going. I should probably do that on every post. Except sometimes I think it is going one place and it ends up somewhere else. No one is more surprised by that than me. Huh. I still have reading on the brain. This is not going to come as a newsflash: there are some people who are readers and some people who are not. Some people read every day; they read journals, magazines, or manuals for their job or to learn how to do something. These people are not readers. They know how to read, but they don't read for the sheer joy of reading.

I could get into the whole nature versus nurture thing on reading. Yawn. Yeah, I am excited about that prospect. Once upon a time I would have sworn that if you read to your kid they would like to read. Now, I am less certain of that. You might sway the odds somewhat, but I think nature factors in there. Plus, I really don't care. Ooooh. Yeah, I am still feeling pissy about H-Girl. She isn't a reader and I read to her plenty. C-Man loves to read. So, I am going with nature. It is kicking nurture's ass right now. Moving on....


Let's talk about me. I have always loved to read. I can't remember a time when I didn't love to read. When we moved back to Ohio, and bought the house in the suburbs of Columbus, which is where we stayed until I graduated high school, my father thought it would be lovely if we heated it with a wood burning stove. There was also a furnace installed (Thank God). The wood burning stove would have been an awesome plan if 1) My dad bought enough wood to last the winter, and 2) He fed the stove during the night and at lunchtime so that the house wasn't freezing in the morning and when we came home from school.

As it happened, the stove was placed far enough out into the living room that you could walk behind it or sit behind it. If I was home after school, you almost always could find me parked behind the wood stove, back to the wall. I started with my homework, but when that was done, I pulled out whatever book I was reading and settled in.

In college, I remember distinctly the day my sophomore year that I stumbled across Jen reading a book for pleasure. That year I was taking all core classes because I had no clue about what I was going to major in. It occurred to me that I hadn't read anything for fun in forever. She had a slew of novels. I was dumbstruck. How did she manage it? It turns out her grades weren't that great, but I didn't know that. She let me borrow one. It was bliss. It was a Sidney Sheldon. I don't even remember which one. I skipped all of my classes that day. I just read. Of course, I couldn't keep that up, but it was wonderful.

I suppose that is why I majored in English. I had no clue about a major and I had to choose something. Why did I pick it? I liked to read. That is the long and the short answer. I got to read until my eyes about popped out of my head for the next two years.

Then I went to work for a publishing house. That is the equivalent of letting an alcoholic work in a bar. Did you know that if you work for a publishing house that there is no book that you can't get for free? None. Everything is yours for the taking. It is just one phone call away. And if you are really good at working it, you can extend that to things like CDs. I never even thought of that. One of my coworkers got a box of CDs in the mail and I just gaped at him like a fool. "How did you do that?" I asked.

He looked at me like the naive pet that I am. I know that he wanted to reach over and pet me like a puppy. "I sent them books, silly girl." Ah, some people know how to work it and some people know how to work it. My admiration went up like ten notches. It must have shown because he let me have a couple of the CDs. Generosity at work. However, he didn't track me down in the future to let me know when he got shipments of CDs. I really shouldn't dwell on the past. He did take me to a Rangers game. Although, I think that is because he is an avid hockey fan and was looking to convert me. Either way. Anyway, it's all better now. Moving on...

I don't remember books departing from my life until I got married, the kids moved in, and the migraines got bad. I had lots of things working against my reading at that point. It was all I could do to hold down my job, take care of the kids, deal with my husband, and try to sleep. And then there were the ongoing migraines from hell. So, there were painkillers at regular intervals just to keep my life afloat. After the divorce, most of the time the migraines were still really bad. Of course, my best times of day were late at night. My sleep pattern was totally messed up. And I was back to living on pain pills if I wanted to go anywhere.


In the summer of 2005, I went to Florida to spend time with my parents. This was before the move. My mother had done everything but tie me to a chair to get me to read Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. I started reading. I think I read a book and a half a day, and I laughed so hard I nearly peed myself. I felt better that week than I had in a long time.


In the last few days, I have read two Stephanie Plums (15 &16) and started the Sookie Stackhouse series. I am two down on that one. I can't say my migraines are gone, but they are somewhat better. Migraines are triggered in large part by stress. Reading is stress relieving for me, so it stands to reason that it would help.

Not everyone has migraines, but everyone has stress. Take a minute right now to think about what you love to do that relieves yours. Are you doing it? In other words, are you running your schedule or is your schedule running you?