I know I’ve
said it before, but I love reading. The
one good thing about the pandemic and staying home is that I have had lots of
time for reading books! Since the
library reopened, I’ve been able to take out stacks of books to enjoy; before I
got my new glasses I was taking out the large print editions because it was
straining my eyes so much with the old prescription. My new glasses mean I can read any size print
without getting a headache or blurry vision from eye strain. I don’t like audio books, I prefer to put my
own spin on the words, hear the character’s voices in my head and not someone
else’s interpretation. I also prefer
turning actual paper pages, so I’m not a fan of reading on a screen. Although, when Hillary was hospitalized for a
month last fall I read a lot on my phone.
You can’t really cart a bag of books around the hospital when you’re
caring for a loved one who is quite ill and gets moved from one department to
another with some frequency. So reading
on my phone was better than nothing while she was sleeping in between doctors
and nurses trying to heal her. I have
some favorite authors who I go back to from time to time, sometimes rereading
books because I enjoy them so much. I
also like to try new authors, and occasionally a new genre. Sometimes I learn something new, or get a new
perspective on things.
Recently
I read an older book about 500 years of American history. It began with how people first appeared on
the North American continent. The most
surprising thing I learned was that there was such a thing as giant
beavers! I never heard of them before,
they roamed the continent from Florida to Alaska along with mastodons and sabre
tooth tigers during the ice age. They know
this because of bones archeologists found.
I had no idea, and when I told my husband, he was not surprised and
immediately found a picture of them online, as if it was something he looked up
every day. It seems as if they were
about the size of one of our current black bears. What I found frightening is imagining how
large and sharp their teeth would be, and what large dams they would
build. Can you imagine the size of their
flat, wide beaver tails? Wow! The rest
of the book didn’t offer much insight into anything else it discussed—the kidnapping
of the Lindbergh baby, JFK’s assassination, the disappearance of Amelia Earhart,
and the story of the Mayans among other mysteries of history. It was interesting and nice to step away from
my usual diet of murder mysteries.
Currently
I’m reading a book that was my mother’s.
It’s “James Herriot’s Dog Stories”, a collection of his short stories
having to do with dogs he encountered in his veterinary practice in Darrowby,
England. It’s a book I’ve read before,
and it’s a comfortable positive group of stories that is perfect with my
morning tea at the beginning of the day.
I’m also working my way through “The Pen Commandments” by Steven Frank,
which is a guide for beginning writers but I’m using it as a nice way to review
basic grammar and writing techniques. It’s
not as dry as a text book as he illustrates his points with stories from his
classroom and students. It’s good to
pick up when I have a few minutes. I
have a book in my next to be read pile that I just bought, it’s a thriller by
an author I am unfamiliar with—Paula McLain—and the title is “When the Stars Go
Dark”. I can’t wait to have time to start it, maybe this afternoon. I love the delicious anticipation of a new
book to read!
Reading
has always been a pleasure for me, and a favorite way to spend some free
time. Losing myself in a book is also
like a little vacation for my mind and a great way to step away from some of
the everyday worries we all seem to have as our constant companions. With nice
weather finally here, I can combine it with spending time outside—perfect!
