I love to read!
I got my first library card on my fifth birthday; I still remember the book that I checked out from the library that day: Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans. I absolutely adored Madeline; I still love reading about her, all these years later.
I was lucky in that I learned to read a bit before I headed to school, I think partly because I had an older sister who used to read to me when I was very young. My mother believed in literacy and she read to me. She enrolled me in the Scholastic Book Club and regularly bought books from the Weekly Reader.
One of the things I enjoy about reading is that I can visit anywhere or meet interesting people. I can learn about a wide variety of topics: I regularly read about mathematics and physics, the Bible and Jesus, veganism and goal-setting. I can find books about cellular biology that are written at a level I can understand. I can read about artists, music, alternate histories.
Books allow me to lose myself and escape from the realities of the world — or I can immerse myself in current events to learn more about what’s going on around me.
Currently, my book club is reading Gather Together in My Name by Maya Angelou. It’s the second of her books that we’ve read; the first prompted lots of interesting discussion. I’m looking forward to talking about this book. Angelou was an intriguing woman with a fascinating history. Having grown up in an area that was 98% white, it’s been interesting reading about Angelou’s experience of the world as a black woman.
The other books I’m reading right now include Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card (one of my favorite modern authors) and The Mathematics of the Universe by Max Tegmark. The latter book is a bit beyond my current knowledge, but I’m enjoying it none-the-less. Actually, I’m listening to the books on Audible.
Then, always, I am reading The Complete and Annotated Edition of A Course in Miracles. I read random Text passages and my Workbook lesson for the day. (I am determined to get through the Workbook this year!) Finding the CE helped open up the Course for me in a way that the Foundation for Inner Peace’s edition didn’t. I don’t think I’d be a student of the Course without its brilliant editing and appendices.
I’m not sure what’s up next. We’ll pick a new book in book club next week, but I’ll need another book to read long before then. I have only seven minutes left in Pastwatch, so I’ll have to find something soon!
