Bibliophile

Poor sad neglected blog. It's been a while since I've written anything. On here. Written anything on here. Fact is I've been writing a lot of stuff, but nothing for my memoir and nothing for this blog. It's all stuff I'm not going to tell you about until possibly March. I'm sure that has all 10 of you are wondering what it is I'm writing, and why I won't say anything about it for five months.

So mysterious.

That's how I do things.

Sometimes.

But here I am, back on the blog, writing things. Maybe it's because I decided it's time for a new post. Maybe it's that I have literally nothing to do at work. Maybe it's that I read 3 books last week (true fact) and it made me realize how much I really really love books and I want to write about that. The answer is D) all of the above.

The "three books last week" may be slightly misleading as to my reading speed. I am a slow reader. But these books were YA fiction (yes, I re-read The Hunger Games series. Then I wanted to write fan fiction just like I'm fourteen again, only I never wanted to write fan fiction when I was fourteen. Possibly more about this later on) and a total of 1,174 pages, but not the hardest thing to read and get through.

But those books reminded me about something that I used to know and forgot by getting too self-involved and giving too much over in other things: I really love to read books. And I really love good books. 

This past Saturday was one of the best days. I woke up at 9 am, had breakfast while I read my book, cleaned my bathroom, cleaned Rosie's bathroom, washed my sheets and put my bed skirt back on my bed, did some cardio while I watched a bit of football, and read my book. All day. That's all I did until late afternoon when I turned the last page and shut the back cover. It was glorious because all I did was read.

The book I read on Saturday was one that I've read before and know that once I open it, I have a hard time putting it down until it's done. And when it's done, I'm so sad it's over. So much so that  I want to turn it back over and start it again. That is the mark of a great book: one you want to read again as soon as it's done. I love that about books.

Sometimes I think I spend too much time with television and not enough time with books. It's rare that I finish watching a show on the telly and think to myself "I can't wait to go write something! I'm so inspired by that show!" But more often than not I finish a book, and not even finish but put down, and think "I need to go write something. Right now." because of a book. Being a better reader makes you a better writer. I've said that before and it's true.

I used to really pigeonhole myself to non-fiction. That's what I write, so that's what I read. I've discovered that fiction and even YA yield books that are worth reading, and in the case of the last non-fiction books I've read, YA and fiction yield books that are better than the non-fic I've been reading. Case in point: The Glass Castle < Mockingjay. "You can't compare those two! That's ludicrous!" Not really. Those two books have more in common than you think. Strong female characters, hunger, poverty, exploitation by an adult male, a pet cat... but I read Mockingjay in a day. It took me maybe four or five times longer to read The Glass Castle, and towards the end it was a sprint to the finish because I was so tired of it.

For those of you who have read The Glass Castle and loved it and now want to leave hate comments on this post, let me just say I know I'm in the minority. It doesn't seem to be in my nature to love much-hyped books that have been on the NYT Bestseller list for four years.

Tangent.

Besides the point. A book that makes me want to write, or stop and consider, or research and read more like it is invaluable to me. Even if what it really makes me want to write is fan fiction, which would probably be awful.