An avid reader

Somewhere along the way I realized that I had lost my love of reading.

I’ve been trying to find it again.  

To get it back.  

I used to LOVE reading.

My idea of a good time was to curl up with a book for the evening - or as long as possible.

My special treat for a "day off" activity was to hang out at Barnes and Noble and browse through huge stacks of books and agonize about which one or two I would buy to take home with me.

I was one of those people reading two or three books at once.  You know; several in process.  One for the family room, one by my bed and one in my purse. In fact, back in the day when I worked in a library, I remember hearing my boss say "you can only read one book at a time" and I thought to myself "Wow; you do not know me."

I would often carry a book with me in case I had some waiting time.  I could jump into that book at a moment’s notice and snatch a page or a few.  

Sort of like I do with my phone now.  

Yep.  It’s so easy to grab my phone and check my notifications or look for new “content” on Facebook or e-mail. 

I do love technology!  I remember when I first got my Kindle.  How exciting to have so many books in such a small package!  And I do lots of reading on my computer - and very much appreciate how wonderfully easy it is to research any subject.  

But I miss REAL books and miss the voracious reader that I used to be.  So I would pick up real books and try to read again, but I discovered my attention span had dwindled.  Blame it on too much screen time?  Maybe partly but I think there was something else - that came even earlier.  

As I look back over the years, I think I may have isolated the turning point.  

When I was scheduled for my first session of chemotherapy nearly fifteen years ago, I remember packing up some favorite books and magazines - thinking this was going to be so cool to have this time on my hands to just read.  Just sit there and read!  Okay, yah; I was trying to find something positive about this not-so-fun thing.

Only it didn’t work that way.  For some reason I just didn’t have the focus or the energy to read during those infusions - nor during the recovery times.  I don’t remember if I continued to carry books along to those sessions but I don’t think I got much reading done.  Nor do I remember ever really getting back to my old reading habits in the months following cancer treatment.

And then along came other ways to read - on screens and in smaller quicker portions.

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So that’s my sad story about how I lost my reading habit.

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To be continued here...