I have always been a bookworm. My mom tells how as a young child I would go to bed at night with a stack of books. She would know I had fallen asleep when she heard the thunk of the last book hitting the floor. I think she still has Cinderella memorized from reading it to me so often. During my school-aged years I would check out huge stacks of books from the library, and quite often I would be reading two at a time. Then there came the dark college and young motherhood years, where reading a novel would be, well, a novel idea. With all the other intellectual and physical demands during those times, a "free-reading" book was a luxury I usually couldn't afford.
It is only recently that I have been able to read something with more than ten words per page, or that didn't consist solely of cute little rhyming couplets, or where the illustrator should get top billing over the author. At first I felt guilty for indulging in a book over 100 pages long, but now I consider myself to be a good example to my kids. Maybe too good, in fact. Emma and Leah seem to have inherited the voracious reading gene. They have each had their noses in books from day one, literally (remember setting up The Runaway Bunny and Goodnight, Moon for them during tummy time, Mom?). And it still continues. I mean, have you ever threatened to take away reading as a punishment? Have you ever had to say, "Now is not the time for reading, girls--put your books down and start ___________"? In all reality, I am grateful for this love of books that I see in my kids, Brooke and Andrew included. I think it is setting them up for a good experience in school, and a lifetime of learning.
As an adult, my biggest problem with leisure reading has been finding decent books to read. There is so much trash out there, and while I admit to being pretty liberal with my choices, I am not a fan of gratuitous garbage. So once I find a good thing, I stick with it. Jodi Picoult, for example, is probably my favorite author. I like that she writes fast...she says it takes her 9 months to finish a book, so every year we get a new one. I like how smart she is, how well she does her research, how she defines and presents her characters. But what I love the most is how she makes me think, question my previously held notions and ideas, and ponder what I would do if placed in a similar situation. She takes topics that I think are black and white, like suicide, the death penalty, and religion, and shows me that there might be gray, if not for me, then for other people. While I do not question my fundamental religious beliefs (she doesn't take me that far...I'm pretty solid in that respect), she opens my eyes to the fact that not every situation in life is cut-and-dry, and I like that.
Obviously, some of her books are better than others, but even her worst are still better than most books you'll find. (As Glenn says about Beautiful Day by U2--good song, average U2 song.) Her latest, for example, Change of Heart, probably wasn't my favorite, but I loved the comforting familiarity of reading a Jodi Picoult book. (One caveat-as with most of her books, there is a sprinkling of a "choice" word throughout, but when it comes from oh, say, a convicted felon on death row, it makes a little bit more sense and is a little easier for me to swallow...again--non-gratuitous.)
Something I loved though was how I stayed up until 12:30 Saturday morning trying to finish the book. It brought me back to my younger days, only this time the person I share a room with quietly rolled over and fell asleep, instead of yelling at me to turn the light off and then tattling on me. But even with this ideal situation my age caught up to me and I had to give in to sleep. Rest assured, however, that I was done by 10:00 the next morning.
So now I am left waiting until Jodi's next book, Handle With Care, comes out in 2009. I will be all over it as soon as it does. In the meantime, I am rereading My Sister's Keeper to get ready for the movie starring Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin. And, if anyone has any suggestions of good books to read, please, pass them along. We bookworms have to stick together!
filling the candy molds 
making chocolate covered pretzels with sprinkles 
"chocolate" pictionary 
We had a fun time celebrating the new ten-year-olds!
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