READING!

I'm not back to reading the way I used to--new book each week (or more), reading my way through a whole series by one author (and some of those folks write a LOT of books), or haunting the library's shelves for new writers or new stuff by some of my old faves.

BUT! I am back to reading. It happened this way:

I will confess, I was getting worried about my sanity. Reading had always--at least since age six--been my way of living, of coping, and of entertaining myself.

• 
  recently I noticed books lying around, unread
• some of them were recent purchases (why did I buy them, if I wasn't going to read them?)
• some had been sampled, then allowed to lie fallow

You can see why I might worry a little.

I also began pursuing other activities in place of reading, such as:

• watching videos; I could account for the art videos--I was learning more techniques used in watercolor painting, and after I watched the videos, I could practice
• harder to account for were the mystery/thriller/suspense programs, except--they were the subjects that I used to choose in books; the DVDs meant a whole book could be absorbed in 1.5 hours, instead of days

Granted, those are creative endeavors, more or less. But then it became obvious I wasn't reading anything--none of my magazines, no kids' books (always a nice change of pace), no nonfiction (used to read memoirs a lot, and books on writing techniques, and how-to books about making quilts or painting pictures).

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Not sure why anything changed. One day I ordered a few books I'd heard about in a YouTube program--books of poetry, memoirs of authors, biographies of poets and other writers. In no time a stack of ten or twelve books stood beside my favorite chair. I read a few pages--maybe a chapter--sampled different writers. 

Did I begin to feel a stirring in my blood at that time? Maybe. Maybe. At any rate, I began haunting websites where used books abound. I'm now increasing my personal library of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries (most of mine were lost in a mini-flood 20 years ago). Mary Oliver's poetry is finding its way to my door, along with The Poetry Handbook, her thoughts on writing poetry. 

One of the loveliest things about buying from the used-book sellers--aside from affordable prices--is the frequency of deliveries: my current purchases are arriving in three (or is it four?) batches. Something to look forward to! Free shipping is nice, too!

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Maybe it's a change in the weather--our August days and nights aren't up in the danged-hot range this year. The AC runs only because humidity sometimes soars, but heat indices in my little corner of the world are safe (so far) or at least endurable without danger to life and limb.

Maybe it's a change in my attitude; I didn't notice my 'tude had slipped, but that could be it.

Maybe it's just a Mysterious Something that happens once in a while. A wind blows through--the sun shines from a different angle--trees wave and bend and nod--and the season changes. Including the internal season of humankind.

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Hoping you're happy in your corner of Life--that your activities please you--that you have something to look forward to.

'Til next time, blessings from

Thursday's Child (possibly lost in a new book)

The To-Be-Read Pile