Reading??? Me???!!!

Hello, to you people who are here before I get famous (jk jk…but maybe…)!

As usual, I have a lot on my mind, but I’ll try to keep it brief. [Spoiler alert: I did not keep it brief.]

I’ll start with a confession: I have not been a very consistent reader in many many MANY years. It wasn’t always this way. When I was a child, I read constantly. I would be the kid reading in the back seat of the car at night, holding my book up to the moving lights because I just had to keep reading! Even as a teen, there were some nights when I didn’t go to sleep until the sun was coming up so I could finish a book. I loved the Chronicles of Narnia, books by Frank E. Peretti, and there was this series of books that took place over many American generations that I just couldn’t get enough of.

But then I got older, was writing…and I think the reading just fizzled out. In my 20s, I did discover and read The Hunger Games and read the Harry Potter series, both of which I loved. However, for most of the duration of my adult life, reading, especially reading fiction, has been a struggle. I want to do it and I buy books sometimes, but then they just always stare at me, filling me with guilt that I’m no longer a “reader.”

There’s so many reasons to read! It’s definitely better for your eyes and mind than screens. It helps grow your imagination. It just feels inherently good and healthy while other things seem…less good. So then I feel guilty. Then to add to the guilt, I’m also a writer! And so many authors have said to be a writer, YOU NEED TO READ!!! But then I’m like, if I’m writing, how am I supposed to find time to READ (this isn’t the best excuse since I somehow find lots of time to scroll)????

So I’ll get a book and start reading a little bit, and it’s not bad or anything, but I get easily distracted. Sometimes I’ll take a book on a trip, hoping if I limit what’s available to me, I’ll finally read. I might read a little bit, but spend most of the trip bullet journaling or writing, and don’t force myself to read. So these probably fantastic books sit, glaring at me.

But MAYBE this is FINALLY the time when I return to reading. Something amazing has happened.

I actually recently started reading Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion. I saw the movie years ago, which I loved. Then for some reason recently I saw the book cover, and I listened to a snippet of it on Amazon. The words were just amazing! They just tickled my ears. So I decided that I needed to read this book and enjoy whatever other beautiful words were written therein.

I was able to get a used hardcover pretty cheaply, though I was pretty confident I would not regret a larger investment. The hardcover just happened to be super cheap, and the cover art is pretty cool.

I was so excited when the book arrived! I sat down and read the first chapter Monday, I think. The first line: fantastic. Then each new sentence was also wonderful! I kept thinking I wanted to go back and read each sentence. Then last night (Tuesday), I did something SO CRAZY that people online have been saying to do for years: I put my phone aside to charge before bed, and then I read Warm Bodies, and then I went to sleep without picking my phone back up! Not even once! And then I read some more today!

So now I feel like a real grownup because I’m this amazing reader now (3 days in a row, if you’re keeping track), but also I kind of want to be like Isaac Marion when I grow up (I’m only 35, you know)! I doubt any of my writing will contain anywhere near as much humor as his does, but I hope my writing will be as pleasing to read in its own way.

So thank you, Isaac Marion! You may have saved my reading life and my writing!

S.S.