Friday, June 18, 2010

Dear Kindle,

I love you! Early on in life I learned to love to read. Inspired by mother, and several teachers, I developed my own interests and favorites and read voraciously up until high school. In high school and college I then fell out of love with reading. As stubborn as I am, I've never done especially well with being told what to do, and it was a new concept being told what to read and how fast to read it. I felt like the teachers had no taste in books, and none of the selections ever seemed to appeal to me. It got a little better in college, but I was so bogged down with text books and studying that if I was reading for pleasure I felt guilty because it meant that I wasn't doing what I was supposed to be. Enter my savior in reading: the Kindle.
I started admiring this quirky piece of technology from afar. Way out of my price range, it was difficult to justify any reason for buying it for myself. I started to wistfully talk about it with my mother the summer that I graduated as we planned our trip to Germany. Wouldn't it be awesome if I could take this handy little e-reader with us to have on the plane and in the car instead of lugging around books? In the end, I chose to abstain, and it was ok because the trip was jam packed, and I didn't do much reading anyway. The suggestion, however, was not lost on my mother, a fellow bibliophile.
Imagine my surprise on Christmas morning when I opened my gift from her and found the product of my ramblings from months before! It was beautiful! Sleek in design, and capable of holding more books than I could ever hope to read, it could fit with me anywhere and be pulled out at anytime! It's one of the swankiest gifts I've ever received to say the least.
This first year of teaching was a tough one. I feel like I traded my personal life and the people that went with it to the effort of keeping my career afloat. At night, I'd go home, and still stress about school. It was an unending cycle of worry. One Friday night, after a ridiculous week, I picked up the Kindle and started reading. I read four books that weekend. It was wonderful. I didn't think about work, I didn't feel stressed, my heart wasn't trying to book an escape, and I was at ease with my life. Naturally, I liked the way I felt, so I continued reading. Since January, I've read 35 books. I feel that I can say with certainty that that's the more books read than I read in 8 years in high school and college combined. I've slowed down recently simply because I've run through my list that had been building up over time, but I still keep it with me and pull it out whenever I can. At the park, at home, at the pool, you’ll find me reading away!












Dear reader, I need help: I’ve run through my reading lists. I need suggestions!

5 comments:

  1. Hey! I thought you might find it cool to know that I found you via WeFeelFine.org and a sentence you wrote: "I feel like I traded my personal life and the people that went with it to the effort of keeping my career afloat." (because it included the word "feel," they collected it. So amazing!

    Anyway, I would recommend Kiterunner and The Lovely Bones.

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  2. It IS very interesting to know that the unintended exposure is out there! The Lovely Bones was actually the first book I read on my kindle! I've been putting off the kiterunner only because I saw the movie and I don't think I'm ready to read something so somber on summer vacation. But I'll keep it on the list! Thank you for your comment!

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  3. Have you read "At Home in Mitford" (there is a whole series) by Jan Karon? I really enjoyed the series! Also, I like "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." Another fun book that I read recently was "Ida B...and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (possibly) Save the World" by Katherine Hannigan

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  4. I'm saving up for the B&N Nook. I had my eye on the Kindle for a long time, but Kindle doesn't work with Overdrive at the Library and I'd rather get most if not all my books free. :)

    Just finished a book called "The Girl Who Chased the Moon"--I liked it enough to start it over the day after I finished it (when I'd stayed up WAAY past my bedtime to read...)

    Right now my favorite things to read are the stories with a little magic in them, especially books that are fleshed-out retellings of fairy tales. I liked Shannon Hale and Jessica Day George, and especially "A Curse Dark as Gold" by Elizabeth Bunce. Alexander McCall Smith's series about The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency is good. too.

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