tacran
Posted : 5/22/2008 11:57:03 PM
I've been called a bookworm -- as a kid, I read with a flashlight under the covers after going to bed (I shared a bedroom with my sister). I spent hours lying on the couch with my head tilted forwards into a book -- and now I have misaligned vertebrae in my neck (Xrays show a lack of a proper curve in my neck, although maybe that's not really what caused it!).
We lived behind the public library, and I hung out there often, especially during the hot summers since it was air conditioned and our apartment wasn't. I went through all the usual series of books as a kid: Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, all the Judy Blumes (I forgot about Fudge until I read the earlier post). I've always loved mysteries -- Agatha Christie, all the Sherlock Holmes collection, PD James, Dorothy Sayers, Martha Grimes. In school, I enjoyed reading the classics, and I've re-read several of them with even greater appreciation as an adult.
I don't make as much time for reading as I'd like to, but I still have 3 stacks of books on my nightstand and a list of books in my purse that I'm constantly adding to. Lately I've been enjoying memoirs and essay collections. Now it takes me forever to get through a book because I read when I get in bed, and I start to nod off after a few pages, which means I have to re-read a few pages the next night!
When I'm reading a really good book, I start to get sad as I'm nearing the end because I know I won't be able to savor it much longer! Great books have characters that stay with you long after you close them. Someone in an earlier post said they "got lost" in books when dealing with things bothering them. Books serve so many purposes -- escape, relaxation, education, enlightenment, etc. As Emily Dickinson wrote, "There is no frigate like a book!"