A Reader

I am a reader.

I know this because when people ask me what my hobbies are, I say "Reading" without even thinking about it. It is my number one, most favorite thing to do.

When I was a girl, there was no library in my town. Instead, we had the Bookmobile. It was a library in a mobile home and once a week it parked right next to my house. From the moment it arrived until it was time to leave, I laid inside on the comfy floor and read. I used to fantasize about being so involved in my book that I didn't realize the engine had started and the Bookmobile drove off with me inside.

I read like a starving person: voraciously. I inhale books in a single gobble, reading as quickly as possible and for hours at a time. At least the first time. I will reread books I love over and over and over again. This weekend I read Hunger Games and Catching Fire in about 8 hours. I will definitely read both of them again when the third book comes out in August.

Jenna reads like me. I think she's read Harry Potter so many times she can quote it from memory. Kellie is a methodical reader. She reads because it must be done, but she has a thing for comic books. Alissa loves to read, but only once. Not a re-reader. Katie is still figuring it out, but fortunately she likes Junie B. Jones and Diary of a Wimpy Kid so we get to laugh a lot when we read together.

Josh is in an AP Literature class that is killing him. Much to my dismay, he is not a reader, and the books they are reading are not for the faint of heart. For his winter term final, he had to write a paper on the book Heart of Darkness. I helped him with the paper, but I hadn't read the book, so didn't find out until afterwards that he had misunderstood a major component of his thesis. His teacher offered to let him rewrite it, so I said, "Josh, you read the book and I'll read the book and I'll help you with the rewrite."

It was a hard book. And, I thought, a little boring.

In fact, if I hadn't been reading it to help Josh, I would have set it aside after the first chapter.

But I persevered and finished it and now Josh and I have something we're bonded in.

I wanted to bond some more, so I handed him Hunger Games and said, "Josh, this is a great book. It's almost R-rated because of all the violence. I think you'd like it. Give it a try."

He read the first chapter on Sunday and said, "Hmm....interesting."

Yesterday he read more and stayed up 'til 3 am to finish the book.

I have not give up hope that he may also be ....a reader.