Back to the Books

Back when I was a kid, I always had a book to read. I would hide them inside my math book during class, and read by flashlight when I was supposed to be sleeping. It was that way my whole life with the exception of when I was in college, then graduate school, and had so much required reading that the other kinds were crowded out. About 12 or so years ago, a confluence of events led to my reading habit being broken.

I still “read” in the form of audiobooks, but mostly saved those for when I had a long drive somewhere. I love audiobooks and have learned that the brain processes them the same as reading done with the eyes, but still found I was starting to miss books and myself as a reader. Then one of my friends started posting short reviews of books on Instagram. Seeing the book covers and reading her thoughts on the books started waking up something in my brain. Then I would see her at quilting retreats with her crinkly-covered library books and her book light, reading before she went to sleep at night, and I started to feel that itch to get a book in my hands.

What little reading I have done over the past several years has been because my son assigned me books to read or listen to. He says it is because he wants to be able to discuss the book with someone, and he knows I am a good discuss-er. Then my aforementioned bookreviewing friend started hinting that she wanted to assign some reading, too. So, for the first time in many years, I went by the library. I showed the librarian pictures of the book covers, and she found them for me right away. I checked out two—one that my friend wanted to discuss and another that she had favorably reviewed. I am happy to announce that I read them both and returned them inside the two-week deadline! And both were excellent.

Now I am on a roll again. While I was in Scotland, I spotted several interesting-looking history books at some of the places we visited. As soon as we got home, I went back to the library to see if they had any of those titles, along with another novel my friend reviewed. The librarian found me an alternate book on Mary Queen of Scots, one of the novels, and told me about Overdrive, which allows me to check out ebooks to a Kindle. I have set up the Overdrive app on my phone, charged up my Kindle, and checked out and returned a sample book to be sure I know how to do it. I am slowly working my way through the Mary book—it is absorbing but very detailed—I found a used copy of another Mary book, my friend in England gave me a book about Scotland, which my son took with him yesterday, and I have identified some Overdrive books that I want to read. I think I am officially a reader again, and it feels really, really good. These days I am grabbing my coffee and my book and heading out the front porch for the early morning cool. The phone gets to tag along just so I can look up a word or get a bit more information on a person or location mentioned in the book.

If you have not been to the Rylander Library lately, I highly recommend that you drop by. The librarian is very helpful and knowledgeable and will bend over backwards to get you something good to read. Looks like I will be there every couple of weeks, and I hope you will join me. SpringCreekArtsGuild@ gmail.com