I’m expanding my blog a little. A post on Friday! About books! And reading!

Once upon a time I was a voracious reader. And I want to get back to reading in 2022. As a child, teenager, and young adult, I read every book I could find. Even when my kids were little—I was rocking a cradle and reading a book. But. I went to work along with raising two kids and making dinner every night and all those reading hours were turned to my job and keeping up with technical journals and spending time with those amazing children. I have no excuse now. Yes. I’m busy with all of my sewing, crafting, and volunteering but this year I’m also reading. And it feels so good!

One of my very first memories as a child was watching my dad read the newspaper and wanting to understand what all those marks meant. Plus if I could read, maybe we could read the paper together! I did eventually turn into an early reader and my favorite place to go to was the library in our little town. I took piano lessons right across the street from the building. Fifty cents for a half hour lesson and then I got to run across the street and hold books. Oh yeah, there was also a Dairy Queen right beside the library. All good memories.

I prefer reading books–as in a real book with pages made out of paper. But I also borrow books from the library, Gutenberg, and Amazon Prime that I download to my iPad. I’m not above reading on an electronic device–especially when it’s free! Seriously. If I bought every book that I read, I’d quickly run out of room in my house!

This year my ND family sent me two books for my birthday which was in December. Both from Stephen King. “Billy Summers” and “11/23/63”. I finished both of them this month. Highly recommend.

“Billy Summers” was the first book I have read from Mr. King that was not based on the supernatural. I couldn’t put it down.

The second book, “11/23/63” was about time travel and how changes effected the future. I’m wondering if someone did some time travel that made the last few years Hell. Read it. He wrote it before the pandemic.

I remember my first Stephen King book–“Carrie”. I was at my boyfriend’s house way back in 1973 and his mother loved to read and had stacks of paper backs all over her house. That’s where I found “Carrie”. I think I curled up in a little ball and read it from beginning to end in one sitting. I’m pretty sure that the boyfriend was not happy with my inattention. I’m also pretty sure I hung out with him because his mom was so cool. But what a great book.

My favorite Stephen King book is “The Stand”. Good vs Evil. But the two books that I just finished are way up high on the list. I think that Stephen King has become a better writer.

Another thought about Stephen King. I went to a local community college as an adult to get my associate of arts degree. The English teacher, who was very popular, told the class that Stephen King was a worthless untalented writer. I was taken aback. Any book that gets people to read and use their imagination is a great writer. And that’s what Stephen King did. For me. And millions of others.

Lest you think I only read pop fiction, I also read classics and books that question. I even have a friend that will not read any book I suggest because a few I have given her were a bit disturbing. (Sorry Donna-scarred for life).

My daughter was an English major when she went to college. She was also an early reader and still consumes books. My advice to her as a teenager was that there was nothing wrong with reading junk books as long as she also read the classics and the difficult to understand books. They were dinner. “Flowers in the Attic” was dessert. (And yes, I read most of that series) Need both to have a happy life.

Okay back to what I read this month. The third book was “Stupid Things I won’t Do When I Get Old: A Highly Judgmental, Unapologetically Honest Account of All the Things Our Elders are Doing Wrong” by Steven Petrow. It’s a short book and a quick read. And fun but enlightening. Made me do some thinking. Cause I’m right there at that cusp and I watched my Dad do all the the same things and swore I would be different. There is a lot of great advice in this book and I totally recommend you read it. We are all getting older and all of us, no matter the age you are now, have watched our parents age. If you have Amazon Prime you can download this one for free.

Okay. I don’t want to bore my sewing, crafting, and quilting friends. Although I think a lot of you also read or listen to audiobooks. Just know, if there is a post here on Friday it will be about reading or photography or perhaps gardening. I’m keeping Tuesday for sewing and Thursday for quilting. But I’m not able to keep that up every week. It’s just me. I don’t have a team. Other than Terry, Miss Kitty, and me. And what a great team that is!