My Life in Reading

I think I’ve said before that I read—a lot. As in, when I go online in the morning, before I start any work, I’ve read my e-mail, which fortunately isn’t a lot, at least skimmed several news site, looked at a couple of jobs sites—a freelancer can never have too many thoughts about those—and looked in general at whatever might tickle my fancy.

Before I go to bed I’ve probably looked at more than one book—an e-reader can do that for you but I also look at paper materials. If there’s an interesting magazine floating around the house, I might peruse that too. Then again, sometimes I just accumulate magazines, especially those that aren’t time sensitive, and then one day I sit down with the pile and start to plow through. Actually, that kind of reading always me happy. You know, if you don’t like the article—and I’ll at least read part of it—you can just flip the page and move on. Plus if I’m in a store with a magazine selection, that’s ultimately where I’m drawn. I like to find new magazines, and see what’s doing in old favorites. But there I tend to read what they call “women’s” materials. Not so much the decorating or celebrity stuff, but stuff with interviews, and fashions, and sometimes weepy stories. And I will also look at the crochet and cross-stitch/needlepoint magazines. Those meet my need for hobbies. I have a large pile of the latter with designs marked. I don’t always want to make the item, but I like to try out new designs—hence my having an odd set of wraps in my closet. I don’t wear them often but I had fun trying out that pattern.

My reading habits can probably only be described as eclectic. I let my mind wander all the time. Fortunately, there is a decent library in my hometown so I’m there once a week—I have to work sometimes, which gets in the way—reviewing the latest, and some of the not so recent books. If I find something that is interesting but is part of a series, I put the new one back on the shelf and will go looking in the stacks for the earlier works. I really can’t stand to read out of order.

Choices Have to Happen 

But then again, I frequently don’t read what can only be described as “SERIOUS” work. My daily job keeps me reading usually in the medical field. That can be depressing—have you ever looked at some of those possible side effects all day? When I come home I want things to be a little lighter. I’m addicted to romances, romantic suspense, and maybe mysteries. If it’s by Nora Roberts, I have to check the library constantly for the latest release. But not all of Nora; personally, I’ve never been into her J.D. Robb persona. Eve and Roarke are interesting but I just don’t care enough. That’s happened with a couple of authors who write under several names. I’ll read everything in one genre, but not in others.

The e-reader was, I think, invented for me. I’m sitting on an airplane as I start to write this. But I’ve already listened to six podcasts, half of a Neil Diamond album, and read a book. Okay, it wasn’t great, so I skimmed some a lot of it. But I had the option, and had already deleted one of the books from the device. It was well rated but getting really stupid. I’m not that indiscriminate in my reading. I’ll probably finish at least three more books before the flight home in five days. I have to read before I go to bed and this is the easy way to do that.

How did all this reading start? According to my mother, as soon as I figured out how the letters worked, and how words were made from them that was it. I loved the library. When my sister figured out reading, she decided she didn’t want to know anything from books. I was the one who pointed her to the good ones–Babar was a personal favorite. She now also reads but like me handles serious stuff all day so is also on the romance wagon.

One of my goals when I had children was to make them into readers. In that area, I’m definitely a success. My husband was the one to read to them every night, and he and they sometimes fell in love with some books that I had to take out of the library repeatedly (yes, I tried to buy some of them but we managed to find a fair number of out-of-print volumes.) I actually now have a first edition of one of the books in my house because it was the only copy I could get. My husband can’t wait to read it to our granddaughter, who’s still just a bit too young for it. Right now we use board books for her to avoid ripping pages. And my daughter is reading those to her daily. She even has some favorites already.

And I used the older one to help the younger one pick out books. Plus, they read an even wider range of material than I do, and even more seriously. Yes, my older daughter reads a fair amount of “chick lit” but I’ve been in her home and trust me, it’s not the only “good” literature there. In fact, I’m thinking of borrowing a couple of books from her. Early in high school my younger daughter and I were in a book store and I agreed to buy any book she liked (up to a certain price) for her. We went home with the complete books of F. Scott Fitzgerald.  I really couldn’t believe that was what she chose but it’s still on her shelf, and she’s been out of high school for a while.

Just Open a Book, a Magazine...Your Choice 

Many years ago I read an article about the birth of the organization “Reading Is Fundamental.” I thought it was a wonderful idea. You can’t dictate to someone what they can read, or at least I believe you shoudn’t try to do that. To make a reader, sometimes you just need them to open a book—any book—on a topic they like. It will spread to other topics from there. There have been news stories on how the Harry Potter series got children to open books. And after that, they discovered other books just because they became interested in new topics. I think it’s wonderful.

To me and my family, reading is the best way to get knowledge. I read on any topic that vaguely interests me. On any given day I’ve done a lot of news, maybe some science, a bit of fiction; whatever catches my eye—and sometimes I’m reading on the Internet and end up far from where I started. I just keep clicking along. It was made for me.

What are you reading? And if you’re not, why not start now?

Reading Is My Life
 

My parents say that I was born talking, and haven’t stopped since. That's probably because there were no books before then. I think I’m frequently very quiet, try not to say all that much, listen a lot…and have my head down reading.

I say I read a lot. As a freelance editor, I can have considerable downtime, and if I have everything else I need to happen done, my mind is buried in a book, the news, the Internet. It’s been like that since someone explained to me how letters fit into words, and words became stories. The alphabet for me is my greatest companion. I just get it. When my sister, who is four years younger than I am, decided that reading was boring, my mother sent her into the library stacks with me so that I could make recommendations. She reads a lot, too.  I think my mother wanted to raise readers…and she met her goals.

People are always surprised to hear how much I read. And what I’m looking at. Yes, I read a lot of romance novels, both good and bad. My argument for that is that as an editor, I spend a lot of time on really heavy subjects with a lot of very long words (and yes, I can even spell most of them myself; for the rest, there are medical dictionaries—and Google.) When I’m done with that, I need an escape. Mindless fiction provides that. But so do mysteries, other blogs, fantasy, magazines…you get the idea. While today I get most of the news I read online, I still like a good paper book.

What to Read

So, what do I read? A lot of news. My regular routine is to start with CNN, then the Huffington Post, Politico, the Washington Post, and several days a week, the Drudge Report. Sometimes, I also look at the National Review, which for me is a bit far out there. I am constantly amazed at how many views there are of the same story One person shoots another, the responses range from there are too many guns out there to there are not enough guns out there, to all those with mental issues should be locked up, to it is all a liberal conspiracy, to the conservatives are ignorant, and my favorite, that God decided to do this because he or she is not studied in the schools. The Comments areas are fascinating.

Then, I have a folder online called “Fun Stuff.” This ranges from Dr. Oz to fashion to  some TV networks to the Daily Beast (which probably belongs in my News file but wandered over here instead). And I have a folder for other blogs. I’m particularly fond of some on personal finance for women (I’ve sent links from those to my 30-something daughter). And I read up on technology as well as job hunting and views from people of my age—the middle years.

Reality is that if a headline catches my eye, I’m more likely to read the story. Why not? I believe that if we limit what we read we are closing ourselves off to other viewpoints. And I like to know what others think. I may strongly disagree with them, and think they are out of their minds, but unless they advocate killing, maiming, or hurting others, they have a right to their views. And if they do want to kill, maim, hurt others, then they should be checked on.

I was on a plane a while back with only one paperback. The other one was buried in my carry-on in the rack above. I hated that book and had to put it down. I had been researching e-readers for months (I’m also known for extensively researching items before I decide to buy anything besides clothes and shoes; if I ever decide to get one). A week later I had a Kindle and 200 books loaded.  It’s been a godsend. And again, I have books in at last 10 categories on it (my family will tell you I tend to sort things that way as well; just makes it easier to find something to fit my mood). 

Creating Lifelong Readers

Having said all that, you should know that I made my children into readers. My younger daughter especially reads very widely, particularly in fiction. She has recommended a lot of authors to her parents and for the most part, it’s worked out well. I always think back to kindergarten for her. She is a bright girl who has always had a lot of interests but somehow hadn’t taught herself. Plus, she was the youngest in her class so based on the results of the prekindergarten testing (something I really never understood but it was required), I had her tested to find out just how bright she was. When I showed the results to the school principal he commented that he didn’t believe she was that bright because she wasn’t reading. So, I went off to the library, got some very early readers, and had them in the car on the way home. With her older sister’s tutoring, she had the first one done by the time we got home—and her sister was very excited over being the tutor. A week later I went back to the principal and said, “We’re reading, what’s next?” That effort has meant that wherever she is now, there’s at least one book in her bag, along with a puzzle magazine if she’s on a train or plane. Her sister travels with at least 2 books in her bag. On one plane trip she learned how to do crossword puzzles, so she has at least one of those magazines as well.

What’s the point of all this? Only to talk about my love of reading, and to encourage everyone to try it. At the time it was founded, I read about the Reading Is Fundamental program. It put books of all kinds into the hands of children just to get them to start to read. There’s nothing wrong with reading only sports books, or comic books, or any one subject. Reading Harry Potter books led children to read on other subjects because they started to discover that they liked to read. I always advocate just starting.

Now, what page was I on…