For the Love of Reading

I don’t know what in the world I did before reading.  I cannot even imagine that life.  Reading opened up my very narrow world to dreams way beyond my reach.  And, besides bridge and gardening, it’s a significant commonality I share with BH.

It probably consumes the majority of our days.  We each read or skim three newspapers daily.  The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and our local Herald Tribune for him.  In addition to the local paper, I peruse the Baltimore Sun and the New York Times.  That pretty much covers half the day.

Both of us love our kindles…you can tell by the multiple chargers throughout the house.  He loves his John MacDonald crime thrillers set in 50s and 60s Florida.  For years, he was one of my faves, but now I’m more into Carl Hiaasen and Randy Wayne White when it comes to Florida crime stories.

My God, who could ask for better material?  When I was growing up in central Florida, it seemed to me such a placid and, for lack of a better word, boring existence.  I never had a clue about crime.  No one ever locked their doors even at night.

But, now?  It’s a crime writer’s paradise.  Just today in Venice, my home, here is the headline:  Husband kills wife in murder-suicide attempt, fails to kill himself when gun malfunctions.  And, it occurred in an assisted living senior community!

Then, there were the two Florida men accused of stealing chainsaws caught trying to sell them back to the victim.  Every day, you can take to the bank that something crazy is going to happen here.  It has totally changed my perspective on living in a gated community which I always thought was absurd.  Now, at 72, and not exactly Ronda Rousey anymore, I like the gate.

But, I digress.  I consider myself an eclectic fiction reader…mysteries, historical, romance, family sagas, women’s fiction.  Love all those fiction genres.  Not so much fantasy and sci-fi.  Maybe that speaks to my lack of imagination.

I enjoy fiction on the best sellers list but I’m just as happy with beach reads. In this era, I prefer more upbeat reads than dark literature.  I have a friend, an even more prolific reader than me, who hasn’t been able to finish a book since Trump was elected.  I’m on the opposite end of that spectrum….burying my nose in a book as opposed to watching tv news.  It keeps me calmer.

Reading was one of the few things I shared with my mother, although her main source of information was the Bible and any right wing bulletin that supported conspiracy theories.  However, we both loved the Miss Julia series by Ann B, Ross, set in a small town in North Carolina.  A new book was published annually just before Mother’s Day, so my mom knew she was getting a visit from Miss Julia as her gift.

As a teacher, I have tons of friends, also big readers, who are my go-tos for book recommendations.  One of them suggested America’s First Daughter, historical fiction based on Martha Jefferson Randolph, Thomas Jefferson’s older daughter.  OMG!  Can’t put it down.  Love the social history we are never privy to in textbooks.

This was a big week for my kindle…downloaded five books:  Olive Again (Elizabeth Strout), A Single Thread (Tracy Chevalier), The Giver of Stars (Jojo Moyes), The Dutch House (Ann Patchett) and #18 in the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series, A Bitter Feast (Deborah Crombie).

I’m beside myself…where to start, where to start?!