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Books Make Me Happy

I had a quiet celebration a few weeks ago when I finally read a non-pregnancy/parenting book. I couldn’t remember the last book that I read that didn’t focus on one of those topics and getting into a book unrelated to either felt so dang good.

I found myself, with Maggie asleep in her Ergo, wandering around a bookstore today and my heart just about burst open from all the great books that I wanted to take home and read. Alas, I left the store empty handed and Barry and I took Maggie to the library this evening and I came home with a pile of books and my name on the holds list for some newbies that I can’t wait to read.

Maggie and I read her books together daily and I can tell that she loves listening to my voice and looking at the pictures and eventually she’ll get to pick out the ones that she loves the most. I can’t wait for that day.

But today, after going to the library and bookstore, I feel like something inside me that has been asleep for the past months has awoken and is ready to begin reading again! *

*Sydney just wanted me to put her picture in this post too. She also wants you to know that she prefers to chew on books, rather than read them like a proper dog.

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Revived

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The last few times I’ve gone to visit my parents they have graciously loaded me up with old keepsakes or asked me to go through some ‘stuff’ to decide if it is worth holding onto. This past weekend I plowed through some old boxes that didn’t get unpacked after a move home.

I discovered my own Book Review Book that I started writing back in 1997. I tried to keep track of books that I read, where I got them and what I thought of them. My reviews are really horrible and not too descriptive, but are also hilariously funny. I have such allegiance to the characters in some and others I tear apart without thought.

Turns out I really did hate Gone With the Wind, but loved I Know This Much is True. I felt it necessary to give a synopsis of each book, how it connected to my life at the time -this is the funny part – and if I’d recommend it to someone else. I also kept track of where I got the book or who suggested it.

While I worked as a nanny in Delaware and New Jersey I got to know where all the used bookstores were and the people that ran them. According to my Book Review Book, I read furiously during those summers and passed many books with the soccer moms I spent my days with and also frequently went to the used bookstores.

Interestingly, the last book review is from a book that Barry loaned me in 2002 while we were on a road trip  together. It was a book about a computer hacker and I think I was more shocked that I was reading a computer nerd book than anything else.

Now that I’ve rescued my Book Review Book from the darkness of my parent’s attic, I’m going to start writing in it again. This time I’m going to attempt to not be so dramatic.

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