Beginnings

Thanks to Gilda Radner, I know that "not all stories have a clear beginning, middle, and end," and yet I am compelled to write a beginning blog before jumping into discussions of books and authors and all that is related to reading.

Today is a pretty typical Saturday for me: a lazy day shaped around stolen hours of reading and at least one outing for the day (so I can pretend to have a weekend life).  During the week, I am a professor; Sundays are spent prepping for the week, the week is spent trying to keep up with courses, but Saturdays are mine.  At least, I like to pretend they are.  My son and husband sometimes disagree with that, but I try to get as much time to myself as I can on Saturdays.  When I have time to myself, my first instinct is to reach for a book.  I love nothing more than curling up in my comfy green chair and losing myself in a world that exists between book covers.  When most people think of their "happy places," they think of beaches or meadows or log cabins.  What is my happy place?  I close my eyes and see a younger version of me curled up and leaning against the wooden headboard of the twin-sized bed of my childhood bedroom with my yellow "blankie" that has since gone missing.  I've got my oversized reading glasses on (that have since been replaced with full-time glasses), and I'm holding a book in my hands.  Yes, my happy place is one in which I am reading.

These days, the best I can do to re-create my happy place is to make sure I have a book in my hands.  I can't always curl up the way I want to since my knees don't like to regularly cooperate with me, and I often have to settle for whatever place I can find to do my reading: in the living room while my son watches TV, in the office between student visits, in the bedroom after my son has gone to sleep but before my husband is finished with his work, in various waiting rooms around town, in the car (but I promise I'm not the one driving when I read in the car)...

My love for reading started at a very young age, through adventures with Little Critter, Amelia Bedelia, Winnie the Pooh, and Laura Ingalls Wilder.  My next few posts are going to start with discussions on books that helped begin my love for reading, and then I will move on to my current favorites and most recent reads.  And thus an adventure begins...