4 posts tagged “reading”
I tend to be a collector. Some people call me a pack rat (okay, even I call myself a pack rat) because I collect so many things. I think I inherited this tendency from my maternal grandmother. She was fond of collecting things too. In fact, when we helped her move from her house into a smaller apartment several years ago I was amazed at the amount of stuff she had crammed into her small little house.
I remember going to my Grandma's house when I was a kid and wondering why she had so much junk laying around. Her house always seemed to be a mess because there was stuff everywhere. It was so bad at times that I didn't even want to be there. There was hardly anywhere to sit because all of the stuff was taking over.
Now I walk through my own house and feel the same way except now I understand a little better. I like my stuff. I like my collections of things. Whether it be things from my childhood, my Coca-Cola memorabilia, my pens, my guitars, or even my books, I just like my stuff.
I have recently been going through the house and digging through my things trying to get rid of some of the junk that seems to be taking over. As I sort through boxes of old memories I get so nostalgic. I want to get rid of things, but I am just so attached to them. I can't bear to part with the things I have been collecting throughout my life. Some things are easily tossed, but others just have too many memories attached.
One of the collections I have been trying to sort through is my book collection. I love to read, but rarely have the time to so when I find a book I want to read I buy it instead of checking it out of the library. It generally takes me months to get through a book so it just makes more sense to buy it. The result of this is that I have shelves and shelves full of books that I have purchased and never read.
When I was in college, I got into a Stephen King phase and purchased about 12 of his books that I really wanted to read. A few months ago I started sorting through them and realized I had only read about 3 1/2 of those books. I started on a couple more of them but never was able to really get into them. Even though I enjoy the books more, it is so much faster (and easier) just to watch the movies.
I have so many books laying around that I have never read. I look at them and think, "Wow, I've had that book a long time. I should really read it." but then I never do it. So they sit there collecting dust. Then I find a new book that I'm interested in, buy it, and let it sit around until one day I decide to pick it up and read it. The good part of this is that when I'm really in the mood to read I always have something on hand. The bad part is that I have stacks and stacks of books laying around my house all the time.
Recently, I've really been in the mood to read. There are some new books that have come out that I'm very interested in as well as a few that I've had my eyes on for a while. Thanks to the Amazon gift card I won on Blingo and the 30% off sale that my book club was having, I was finally able to purchase a few of them. Two of them have already come in the mail and I am anxiously awaiting the other two. The only problem is that I'm in the middle of 3 other books and I won't let myself start another one until I finish at least two of those. One is a cheesy romance novel that my sister gave me but the other two are a little more serious and are taking me longer to get through. To be perfectly honest, I have only gotten through the introduction of this one.
I am hoping that this weekend, while my husband is out of town, I can find some quiet reading time and try to finish up a couple of those books so that I can move on to my new ones. I just can't decide which one to start reading first. Here are the choices:
Any suggestions?
Sometime last week, I was browsing through some articles on the BlogHer web site when I came across this. I had read quite a bit about Arianna Huffington's new book around the blogoshpere, and I thought it looked interesting so I requested one of the free copies that they were giving away. I never got an e-mail back so I just kind of assumed that the free copies were already gone. Much to my surprise, when I got home from work yesterday there was a package at the front door waiting for me with my free copy of On Becoming Fearless inside. I'm anxious to get started reading it, but need to finish up a couple of other things first so I can actually enjoy it.
What books are on your nightstand?
I'm still working on this one. I have to take it pretty slow becuase much of what she says is rubbing me the wrong way. I suppose that could be because truth hurts, but I'm taking it all with a grain of salt. Hopefully I'll at least get a few useful tips out of it.
