#3 Reading/Books

I love reading.  When I was a kid I would read under the covers, by flashlight, and when I heard my mum coming down the hallway, I would switch off the flashlight and pretend to be asleep.  My mum had a terrible accident in 1971.  She fell and smashed the kneecap on her left knee.  She was in and out of the hospital and casts for what seemed like most of that year.  She also ended up with a bad limp which the doctor told her she would have for the rest of her life.

After mum's accident I could hear her coming down the hallway.  My dad never checked on me but mum always did so I would only shut the flashlight off if I could hear mum limping down the hallway.  What the doctor didn't understand, was how stubborn my mum was.  She worked on her physio and on her walk until one night, I couldn't tell it was her walking down the hall and I got busted for reading under the covers.

Mum and Dad, circa 1968.

The first chapter book that I remember reading was "Charlotte's Web".  I then discovered the library and "The Black Stallion".  Then even better, I discovered that writers will write series.  Awesome!  Every Saturday dad would take us to the library, I have no idea if mum came along or not, but my brother and I would go downstairs to the children's section and I was in heaven.  I discovered all kinds of worlds down there.  It was heaven for a shy girl.

Since then, I've never stopped reading.  I used to read more before the advent of computers, but I still read.  I read when I brush my teeth.  I read at bedtime.  I read when I sit on the toilet and I used to read when I blow dried my hair.  When my children were small I would lock myself in the bathroom and read.  I had a chair in the bathroom, just for reading.

One of my favorite books is "A Prayer For Owen Meany".  I don't know how many times I've read it but I always enjoy it, over and over again.

My favorite books entertain and educate me.  I learn something that I didn't know before, from life in Nigeria, to growing up in Afghanistan to living in Sweden as an old curmudgeon, and they make me see life from a different point of view as well as share universal truths.

So today's awesome is books and the ability to read.


What's your favorite book and why?