Reading Standstill

Sometimes I get in a sort of reading funk. I haven't figured it out completely, but I notice it often happens when I'm content with my life. Shocking, isn't it? But in all seriousness, I read more when I'm in the mood for escape, when I'm a little fed up with how things in the real world are going, or when I'm avoiding a real-life responsibility. I'm not condoning that behavior, I'm just stating it as fact. So, naturally, when I'm content and enjoying my life, I find it less necessary to escape into a world of books. I still find books enjoyable, of course, but I feel a less weighty pressure to read, read, read and am able to slowly enjoy a good book. Therefore, I have a pile of books and not a huge desire to read them. It's unfortunate but not completely disastrous. That's why I didn't post my One Thousand Gifts on Monday and I haven't been updating my Goodreads tracker very often. It'll come together eventually. My desire to devour will renew, and I'll be back at it again. Until then, I'm reading this quote and nodding wisely. How true. "It is better to read a little and ponder a lot than to read a lot and ponder a little." - Denis Parsons Burkitt

Just a Thought

As I finished my eighth book of 2011 (I know I'm far behind some already), I started pondering my reading habits and wondering why I like reading so much. It is hard to pin point an exact answer to that, but I have a few ideas. I enjoy travelling to different places and time settings, all while sitting in a cozy chair at home. I like to sample a taste of something different, of things that I would never experience otherwise. I sometimes prefer being swept away by a fantasy, escaping for a moment the seemingly ordinary. I like words, and I like how words can be matched together to form incredible sentences that I wonder if I could ever think up. (I probably could not.)

Something is truly wonderful about reading, and that wonderful feeling is truly hard for me to explain. The only way to discover it is to pick up a book yourself and start from page one, savoring each morsel, each divine segment, until you are turning the last page and closing the back cover, wondering about the book for hours afterwords, trying to figure it out, and hoping you will never forget it.

"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing."

~ Harper Lee ~