Reading

 

 

A gift from a friend, reminding me of my love of reading. I hang it where I can see it every day.

Reading lets you live other lives. I've heard this attributed to many people including Rita Dove. I did some research and came up with this website https://shereads.com/quotes-about-reading/ all of which I agree with.

I especially love this quote from George R.R. Martin — "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies.The man who never reads lives only one." It applies to women too.

I was a listener before I was a reader. My mother and grandmother read to me daily: The Bobbsey Twins, Thorton W. Burgess, Barbar, Make Way for Ducklings, Fairy Tales, Jack and Jill, books from the library and more.

When I  went to school, I was thrilled at the idea of learning to read and was disappointed with the "See Dick run. Run Dick run..." text. I finished the book which was to take until December before the first October leaves fell.

So far this year I've read 24 books with 8,576 pages: mysteries, chick lit, politics, history, biography, autobiography, literary fiction... 

When I read, I find myself living within that book. It's thrilling to read about places I know, and in fact, if I want to visit Boston all I have to do is read a Spencer novel. I can picture the old town in Syria, villages where Miss Marple walks, the London Tower because I've been there. And no taking off my shoes in security and pulling my laptop from my suitcase. I can just curl up on the couch with a cup of tea.

The reverse was true when I went to Stockholm. I'd read books set there so I felt I knew it. However, the cinnamon rolls were a discovery that wasn't in any book I'd read set in Sweden.

And there are imaginary places like Louise Penny's Three Pines. I never read any of her books when I'm hungry because of all the good food mentioned. I "know" its streets, its people. I wait to see what Ruth the poet will do next and will Rosa the Duck continue to quack obscenities.

People in books become as real to me and not just those like Cathy and Heathcliff or Jo and Beth. They can be women and men of many different nationalities, situations, philosophies. For whatever time it takes me to finish the book, they become part of my life and I wonder about what they will do next the same way I wonder about the result of my neighbor's visit to the hospital or what my friend Jan will tell me about her job interview. 

A mixture of the real with the imaginary colors my world making a rainbow.

Tomorrow's blog will discuss how as a writer, my characters come and go in my life.

Check out D-L's website: Https://dlnelsonwriter.com