I love to read. I will read the Lysol (a brand of air freshener here in the USA) spray can if there’s nothing else in my house to read.
My mother taught me to read when I was 5 years old. I’m sure she did so to keep me out of her hair, but whatever the reason…..it was one of the best things she ever did for me. I read for pleasure, I read to learn new things, I read because I literally LOVE to read.
Just because I love to read doesn’t mean I will read anything. I’m not fond of westerns (Zane Grey is not on MY hit parade), I mentally outgrew romance novels (historical or otherwise) 30+ years ago, I cannot stand Agatha Christie mysteries (or their ilk, whoever the writer may be) and its a rare science fiction writer that keeps my attention (however, I do like Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Frank Herbert who wrote the Dune series).
My eclectic reading tastes include autobiographies (I have re-read Driving Under the Affluence by Julia Phillips several times), biographies (particularly those of the ‘old’ Hollywood stars such as Elizabeth Taylor or Lana Turner), contemporary mysteries (give me a Sue Grafton or Sara Paretsky novel and I’m in heaven 🙂 ), self-help (Suze Orman’s books on financial health are great), true crime (currently I am re-reading Death Cruise by Don Davis and Slow Death by Jim Fielder), humor in all its myriad forms, and animal books (Merle’s Door: Lessons From A Free-Thinking Dog by Ted Kerasote is a particular favorite).
What’s on my nightstand right now?
1) Leap by Sara Davidson (I’m rereading this one because I turned 50 last November and am wondering what to do with my ‘second act’),
2) Driving Under the Affluence by Julia Phillips (she was a talented, brutally honest, and introspective writer who unfortunately IMO left this world much too soon; she also wrote You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again)
3) When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It’s Time To Go Home by Erma Bombeck (I’ve read every book Erma Bombeck ever wrote, even though I had nothing in common with her at all—funny is funny no matter what!)
4) It Ain’t All About The Cooking by Paula Deen (I can’t begin to tell you how refreshing a sassy, white-headed, and ’round’ woman is to this sassy, gray-headed, and ’round’ woman, not to mention the recipes are to die for)
5) Survive by Les Stroud (host of ‘Survivorman’ and one cute dude ROFLMAO; okay, I admit it, I’m a shallow woman and I have a huge crush on Les Stroud–but the book does have a lot of good information on surviving in the wilderness or in situations where ‘the ambulance is NOT going to come’)
One book that I couldn’t stand when I first read it was Joan Didion’s ‘The Year of Magical Thinking’
I found it depressing and I found myself thinking the author was dwelling on highly uncomfortable subjects (such as the blood on her floor from when her husband fell when he was having his fatal heart attack).
It’s amazing though how that was the book I turned to after my father died. Even though we are separated by close to 30 years agewise Ms Didion wrote about things that I could relate to in that difficult time– cognitive deficits, magical thinking, fear of dying, being unable to cope.
The Year of Magical Thinking made me realize I wasn’t crazy, or even going crazy……I was just grieving and grief has been noted to ‘derange the mind’
Do I think I will ever stop reading? Let’s put it this way, I have a mental picture of me on my own deathbed –far in the future mind you– with a glass of white wine in one hand and a good book in the other.
Do I think I will ever stop reading? I DON’T THINK SO!!