Paul Sweeney once said, “You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend.”
I used to be the biggest lover of reading around. I could sit and read a 500-page book in one sitting, unable to put it down and distraught when I was finished because I didn’t want the book to end. At the point of life that I’m in now, though, I barely have free time to get schoolwork done, much less to sit and read for pleasure.
Up until around my junior year of high school, I could always be found carrying a book with me or reading while I had any free time. My family knew that for birthdays or holidays, a book was always a safe choice for a gift. Mysteries and fantasies, romances and comedies – any kind of book, any length, was good enough for me. I read long series and standalone books, but my favorite thing was always getting into a good series so that I could look forward to what was coming next.
Currently, I am student teaching in a third grade classroom, and my favorite part of the day is read-aloud time. I am reading a chapter book called A Handful of Stars to my students, and I also do read-alouds with picture books that relate to lessons quite a lot. I absolutely love finding myself invested in a story, and it happens even more when I’m reading it aloud because I can watch the students in the class getting invested as well. Another thing that makes read-aloud so enjoyable is the fact that I can have fun with it. I can do voices, I can shout when the characters are excited, I can whisper when they’re being sneaky, I can make expressions that match the dialogue, and best of all, I can watch the students track me around the room as I read because they’re so into the story. That’s the joy of reading that I miss having constantly, because unfortunately, that’s all the actual book-reading that I get to do anymore.
That’s not to say that I don’t have options to read, however. I have piles of books that are waiting to be read at home and that I just haven’t had the time to read. I also can read short stories online, and I read articles and blog posts all the time. A good book, however, is a wonder all on it’s own, and all in all, I dearly miss finding that wonder. The last time I had a chance to truly get into a book was my sophomore year of college, when a professor loaned me a book that she thought I would enjoy. I did enjoy it – I sat and read the whole thing in a couple of days, and I cried and cried at the end (not just because it was finished, but because it was sad; I was still upset that it had to end, though). The fact that a book can make someone feel so many emotions is something amazing. A good author can make readers fall completely in love with characters. We can relate to them, we understand them, we love them. When I gave that book back to my professor, I was hoping to get back into constantly reading again, but unfortunately, I just haven’t been able to.
Hopefully, once my life settles down a little, I’ll have time to simply sit and read a book without my responsibilities and anxieties overwhelming me. I do currently have a lot of books I’d like to read, and I’m sure my collection will only continue to grow. Of course, as Dr. Seuss said, “Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks.”
HCXO, Lola
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