books

Hi everyone!

Guess what? This is my 100th blog post! How exciting. I can't believe I am at 100 posts already. I guess I had a lot to say. Not a lot of important things to say, but still, a lot to say.

So what to blog about on this historic post? I guess I'll just blog about what I was going to blog about before I realized that it was my 100th post.

Books.

I love books. I can't even begin to tell you the role that books have played in my life.

I once complained that my parents didn't read to me as a child, because I can't remember it. They were actually upset when I said that. Apparently I was the most well read to child ever. I don't remember it at all. I can't tell you what my favorite book was when I was four years old. (Isn't it sort of sad that we put so much effort into raising these toddlers/ small children and they aren't even going to remember it when they grow up!?!)

The first book that I remember being read was The Happy Hollisters. My sister Chris would read it to me before bed. I LOVED it. So much so that when we were finished with that first book I read the entire rest of the series by myself.

When I was in fifth grade our teacher read us A Wrinkle In Time. It seems like fifth grade is a little old to still be being read to but it is one of my fonder memories and it really helped our class calm down.

I was joking that when I had my Lasik eye surgery done that my sister could read me a book that night since I wasn't supposed to be using my eyes. She didn't. Why is it that we don't get read to as adults anymore? Probably because it is a pain in the butt for the reader and we can just do it ourselves. But I miss it.

My then-boyfriend Matt and I were driving from Minnesota to Chicago and it is about a seven hour trip. I HATE to drive so Matt made me a deal that if I would read aloud to him (we were both reading the new Harry Potter book that had come out) that he would drive the whole way. So I did. By the way, it is really hard on your voice to read aloud for that long. And there were a lot of words in the Harry Potter series that I did not know how to pronounce. I just made up my own words.

Books are awesome. My sister asked me the other day how I felt about Kindle. In principle I know it is a good idea. Better for the environment. A space saver. Convenient. But it still just feels so wrong. Because it isn't just reading that I love, it is actual books. I love the feel of the cover. I love the heft of the weight in my hands. I love the smell of the book. I love how they get faded and "well loved looking" in time. I love how you can see how far along you are by seeing how many pages are left. I love that you can burn them as fuel when you start getting cold. I love to see it sitting on my night stand, like a friend waiting for me. I love books.