Have you ever gotten stuck in a book? Been so completely engrossed that all you wanted to do was stay home and read? I am a reader and a half. Reading is serious business. I don't know who I would be if not for my books, which I think I may have mentioned in a blog or two before.
Some people just randomly read when they feel like it. Or they read to fall asleep at night. Or they only read a certain author, or a certain genre. They read because they feel like they are supposed to, or because occasionally it helps them escape. They are casual readers. A lot of people don't read at all. Which has never made sense to me. But to each their own.
I know that there are certain books that I do just read. They take me a few days. I don't really think about them until it is time to go to bed and relax before sleep. They're time fillers. They fill my need to read. And that is exactly what reading is to me. A need.
Then, there are the books that take over your life. The books that make you have a complete disregard for getting up in the morning. The ones that make it so even when you are supposed to be doing something like, oh, watching your child play baseball, you're reading on your phone. That same book is the one that keeps you in the hammock long after you have to pee and then also makes you forget that you should probably eat something. When you do finally eat something you eat and read, often sitting up in bed, balancing your book and your food. That kind of book can make you forget the cup of coffee, forget the hair appointment, forget anything you may have been supposed to do, because you are stuck in the book.
That happened to me this past weekend. The third book in a trilogy that I have been waiting for well over a year to read came out on Tuesday. I didn't even bother to start it because I knew it was going to suck me in. I recently reread the first two, and the same thing happened with those, and it was the second time I had read them (it was the All Soul's Trilogy by Deborah Harkness in case you are curious). I started the third book on Thursday and read every chance I got. Finally, yesterday after baseball, I just committed to finishing. Josh left to go to his parents and I told him I was going to stay and read. Rare for me lately because I feel like all I do is work and baseball.
I stayed up until 1:00 in the morning finishing my book. And today I'm STILL stuck in it. I don't want to start another book because I'm not quite ready to be done with that one yet. It's still holding on.
I read this quote by Rosemarie Urquico a couple of years ago and fell in love with it. It's much longer than this so I won't post it all but my favorite part is the part where she says "You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you". I haven't always been with someone who understands this. I have never dated a reader, which is odd when you think about it. I still don't have a reader, what I do have is someone who has a healthy respect for the reader that I am.
Yesterday I felt guilty for reading all day. For not making dinner, for not cleaning the kitchen and vacuuming the floor. I felt guilty for not going with him to his mom and dads. I shouldn't have and I'm not sure when I'm going to realize that he accepts the reader in me. No matter how many times we move, and have to move my million boxes of books, he isn't going to ask me to get rid of them. When I say I need 10 more minutes he is going to understand that could mean anything, from an hour to four. When I spend a ridiculous amount of money on books, or have to get a new Kindle because mine won't hold a charge anymore, there is no question, no complaining, no nothing. He understands that reading is as much a part of me as my brown hair and brown eyes or my smile.
I don't think I really understood until yesterday why he understood this the way he does. When he came home he told me that his mom asked where I was and he told her that I was at home reading a book I'd been waiting forever for. Her response was "Oh, okay, what is she reading?". Only the child of a reader understands the need to read, and respect the reader. It's just one more lesson I'll never forget.
No comments:
Post a Comment