Bookworm at heart

I have recently realized something in need of my confession. In all my name calling of my sister, and others as bookworms, I've been jealous.

First off, I'm sorry to those of you who I called such.

I never had the patience growing up to read all the books my sister could. I wanted to, but I just couldn't get past the 3-page continuous dialogue of Anne Shirley. I couldn't figure out when the plot would start in classics. I liked adventure and fantasy, but some of the books just seemed too big and daunting. I got into books by Brian Jaques, author of the Redwall series, but once I figured out the systematic plots, I gave up.

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My reading days lessened and I grew bored.

In college my bookshelf started filling up again. I grew more interested in reading. Perhaps, again, spurned on by my jealousy of my art, creative writing, and English major friends, I wanted to be cool too. I wasn't just into science, I loved art and more than that I loved adventure. Books are an adventure waiting to happen. Sometimes I feel like they talk to me, and if I were to open their covers they would start singing and beckoning me to read them. But education called. I had little time to devote to "fun reading" as I called it. My shelf of books I progressively purchased off half.com had to sit and wait... and wait... and they're still waiting. I have shelves (currently in boxes) of books that I have yet to read. I actually made a document that is a list of books I hope to read. It is over 200 titles long.

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Life of Pi has been on my to-read list for a few years now... the other day I happened upon a movie trailer for it during the most recent free episode of New Girl on Hulu. I panicked. "I've wanted to read this, now it's gonna be a movie and I still haven't read it?"

I splurged.

This small town is severely lacking in good bookstores. I sufficed with Target. Yes-- Target. I purchased myself not just one, but two books. Life of Pi by Yann Martel and The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick.

For some reason I decided to read The Silver Linings Playbook first (mind you, while still in the middle of 21 other books) and powered through it in three days. Yes, three days. I'm a speed reader, but after my mistake of speeding too fast through the Harry Potter series (and missed a world of poignant information... needless to say I was so excited to finally read them!) and the Twilight books (which made me think they were actually better than when I actually took the time to think about their plot and character development), I made sure to actually take the time to comprehend the story I was taking in.

I realized how happy I was lost in a book and that's when it hit me: I love reading. Perhaps this is a simple thought/realization, but still. I hold to it, and I appreciate myself more for it.

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Somewhere during grad school I lost the interest in opening Word documents, so needless to say I rarely look at my list-of-books-to-read, but the other night (at 1am to be precise), I happened upon GoodReads, which is a site to find books you may be interested in based on your reading history (kinda like netflix, only you can't read them online). It also allows you to organize the books you have read, are currently reading, and those you want to read. Give it a browse. I find it entertaining.

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What are some of your favorite books or authors? What are some of the books you want to finish this year? How long does it usually take you to read a book? Do you have a favorite place to read? Do you have any recommendations for me? Wanna be my friend on GoodReads?