“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” ― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood
“I cannot live without books.” ― Thomas Jefferson
These books are currently on my {proverbial} night stand. (I do not have a night stand.) A few of these books, I am rereading. I am currently trying to read the Bible from cover-to-cover in 40 days (for Lent) with some girl friends, but I am behind. I seriously cannot live without books, without reading, without words. I love that the main way God chose to communicate with us is with written words. Aaah, my love language. My husband has offered to purchase a Kindle for me so many times, but I also love the feeling of a book in my hand. So, I am not quite there yet. {grin}
The other day Jim came home with his arms laden with books for me. I felt so, so loved and understood.
It doesn't matter how busy my life gets, I have to make time for reading (and writing). How do I find time?
- I read while I cook.
- I read while giving my children a bath.
- I read in the bathroom {blush}.
- I read on the treadmill.
- I read while in the van waiting for Habi to get out of school.
- I read early in the morning and late at night. (Late at night is when I do most of my reading. I have insomnia anyway, so why not read? Sleep is overrated!)
- I read while rocking or swinging Jamesy.
- I read while Cadi is reading in school.
My mother was very sharing of this feeling of insatiability. Now, I think of her as reading so much of the time while doing something else. In my mind’s eye The Origin of Species is lying on the shelf in the pantry under a light dusting of flour—my mother was a bread maker; she’d pick it up, sit by the kitchen window and find her place, with one eye on the oven. I remember her picking up The Man in Lower Ten while my hair got dry enough to unroll from a load of kid curlers trying to make me like my idol, Mary Pickford. A generation later, when my brother Walter was away in the Navy and his two little girls often spent the day in our house, I remember Mother reading the new issue of Time magazine while taking the part of the Wolf in a game of “Little Red Riding Hood” with the children. She’d just look up at the right time, long enough to answer—in character—“The better to eat you with, my dear,” and go back to her place in the war news.
–Eudora Welty, One Writer’s Beginnings
So, what's on your night stand? You know....in case I run out of reading material. {wink}
Addis Ababa Time