99. Reading & Books

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high. 
Oh how I love them!
Oh how I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them. 
- Untitled poem written by me in the 4th grade

I have always loved books. And reading. I still do.

Fact: The summer between 3rd and 4th grade I read 105 books.

One of my July goals was to read two books. Two! I did it though. (The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin, and Isabel Allende's Portrait in Sepia - I highly recommend both).

But between law school, my Google reader and staying out late at night, reading for pleasure sadly falls by the wayside.

And I realize now how picky I can be when it comes to books. Over the past few years, I've read a lot of so-so books. And very few I cannot put this down books. And seriously, reading so-so books just isn't that much fun when I could be watching Netflix.

But last week I read Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol (yeah, I'm a little late to the party) in about three days. And I COULD NOT put it down. It had been so long since I'd just holed up by myself and read a book. Like plowed through, not just reading ten pages before bed and calling it quits.

So maybe not the most sophisticated of reading materials, but it reunited me with my love of reading. Of the balancing act of wanting to slowly savor every word and blaze forward to see what happens next.  Of staying up late for just one more chapter. And then another.