Right now I'm reading Ben Hur, The Cat of Bubastes, and Hans Brinker right now. Very satisfying. You know what I love most about all these books? They immerse you so much in the world of the characters. For a little while at least I am in Roman Judea, or New Kingdom Egypt, or Holland. As a writer who is focusing on learning how to make places "pop" right now this is wonderful for me.
I never really read before I started writing. Oh I read physically and emotionally, I would swallow whole books in hours and be swallowed by them but I didn't really read. I didn't have the scope I have now. As a writer I am so much better able to wonder at the scope of grandeur that these fellow laborers bring seemingly with the sweep of a pen, can both sink into the story and sit back and marvel at the beauty of each individual sentence. Oh yes reading is much better from this side of the fence. I also feel more I think, since I started writing and exploring the feelings and emotions of my characters tears come more readily than they used to.
Reading used to be an escape from boredom, I used to be bored a lot. So I had two solutions. i could read, or I could pretend. Of course pretending is impossible with people watching so I could only pretend on sunny days when no one was in the back yard, this meant that I read a lot.
Now I'm hardly ever bored. Between new attitudes that I'm striving to cultivate, new pursuits{drawing, blogging, and writing} and new responsibilities I'm almost never without a lot on plate. After I started writing and that took a great hunk of my time my reading began to slowly but surely slacken. I barely noticed that it was happening until like February and then I only thought, "well that's good I was starting to spend to much time reading like four hours a day. That wasn't good." And then about three weeks ago I realized I hadn't read anything not one thing that wasn't for school in a week and a half.
WHAT!?!?!?!
What happened to the Anne that used to sit on the sofa nose buried in a book deaf and blind to the rest of the world? What happened to the girl who would sleep with Son of the Black Stallion under her pillow just so that she could be near it? Where is the Anne who took twenty books with her to Disney world even though she knew she wouldn't read all of them just because she felt safer with provision for emergency near her?
Where is Anne? Stuck in front of the computer screen eyes barely seeing the words she types as the scene plays out before her. This is not bad, I need to write.
But I also need to read. If I don't put words in my tank I won't be getting many out, and besides that reading is just to great an opportunity to miss!
This blog is my journey-my new journey- through books. How they fascinate me and inspire me and what I think of them. Right now that journey is being slightly outlined by my Classics Club list { page at the top} but that by no means limits it. So open up them pages and put down the mouse! It's time to read!
2 comments:
I feel EXACTLY THE SAME as this. I was just thinking today how lovely it is to know that I will never run out of things to read -- and stories and adventures. I also write and set it aside a while back to take a year for reading. I'm slowly getting back to the writing, now, too. :)
Hans Brinker is such a good book! And Ben-Hur is on my list of top favorite books. The characters are so fascinating and well drawn. Iras, Simonides, Esther and all the rest.
You like Son of the Black Stallion?! I still LOVE those books and it's been years since I first read them!!! Well, most of them anyway; some of the later ones were odd. I read The Black Stallion when I was 7 or 8 and it instantly shot to the top of my favorites list. Then when I was nine, I discovered there were more books in the series and spent the next several weeks borrowing them all from the library and devouring them! And I can't tell you how many times I slept with one under my pillow! After I had stayed up late reading it! :)
I haven't been reading as much as I normally do this last year either. But, I have already started to remedy that. Beginning with Les Miserables, which I finally finished last week. (And that meant I got to see the 10th anniversary concert on Saturday!! Posts on it all coming soon!)
The next book on my reading list is A Tale of two Cities, I believe. I'm looking forward to it! Let us dive into the world of books!
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