I Saw You Reading

Before Harry Potter, I had never e.v.e.r. read any type of magical/fantasy/dragon book. Didn’t think it was for me. So wrong! I fell in love with it immediately. I’m so old that I had to WAIT patiently for the next book to be published before I could read it. Fun times. Well, I’ve recently learned that – despite thinking I’d never enjoy one – I like biographies. Four of the last six books I’ve read have been biographies. Dave Grohl’s was my favorite. I had to quit Matthew Perry’s (love him, but the book was repetitive and a little whiny). Lenny is my Elvis, so I had to read that one. Anyway, just sharing that it can sometimes work out when you try something new. I hope that you, too, will step out of your comfort zone and read something new. You just might learn something about yourself – like I did at the ripe old age of 192.

I have not been a good reading role model so far in 2023. An embarrassingly tiny amount of books! Keeping myself accountable by putting it out there publically and bringing home a bunch of books to read over the summer. That’s all we can do, right? Just keep trying to do better. Here are a few that I plan to read:

“But I love you, and before you say it words do matter. They’re not pointless. If they were pointless then they couldn’t start revolutions and they wouldn’t change history and they wouldn’t be the things that you think about every night before you go to sleep. If they were just words we wouldn’t listen to songs, we wouldn’t beg to be read to when we’re kids. If they were just words, then they’d have no meaning and stories wouldn’t have been around since before humans could write. We wouldn’t have learned to write. If they were just words then people wouldn’t fall in love because of them, feel bad because of them, ache because of them, stop aching because of them…”
― Cath Crowley, Words in Deep Blue

This book is for book lovers and lovers of words and those experiencing grief or first love or unrequited love… But I’m not here to suggest you read it. I’m here to suggest you take the time to underline your favorite words in books. Shhhh. I didn’t say that as a librarian. I’m saying it as a lover of words. But so we don’t get in too much trouble, maybe just make sure you have a post-it note or journal or even just a scrap piece of paper to write down the beautiful words and phrases and passages that cross your path as you are reading. Because words have meaning and they matter and they can change us.