Books, books, books....

I love to read.

As a kid I always had my nose buried in a book. I preferred books to T.V. shows and would literally carry books with me everywhere.

The love of reading didn't lessen as I grew older, but I found it more and more difficult to find time to read, especially when I became an over committed teacher. Now, as a mom, I want to instill in Aliza a love of reading. My parents did this for me--they read to us constantly and they were readers themselves. We read to Aliza all the time, and she loves to read (she even turns the pages herself sometimes!) but watching us read....well, that is another story entirely. Lately I've had two problems, the first being finding the time to read, that is, time when there isn't something else to do or I'm not exhausted from doing everything; and the second is finding something to read. It is difficult to make myself stop....to ignore the piles of things to do and to just read. Not to mention I don't read when Aliza is awake (unless I'm nursing her) because if she's awake then we are playing....so that limits my time even more.

I was given the book Love Walked In and I started it with every intention of finishing it. It was slow going at first and I tried, I really did, to stick with it. See, I hate abandoning books. I usually don't do it. I'll push through hoping it will get better....this book didn't grab me enough, at least not yet. I am not willing to admit defeat though, it is not yet relegated to the book shelves downstairs. It rests by my nightstand waiting for my return.

Because I was frustrated by the fact that I really want to read, I returned to an old favorite author. I was convinced that she would kick start my return to reading because her books, although heavy and often difficult to read, are always beautifully written and make me think deeply. I read Mercy in only a few days. It was comfortable reading yet another Jodi Picoult book. I've read enough of her writing by now to know what to expect and there is something oddly comforting to return to an author whose writing style you know.

Partly through reading Mercy, my sister gave me another book to read. She told me to get a move on because the book would soon be a movie and everyone knows you need to read the book before you see the movie. So I started reading it I was determined to finish it in time to see the movie with my sister. Which I did, but don't ask me how because I couldn't tell you.
I then proceeded to read the other three books in the series.

And then I got stuck for awhile. I mean, stuck with what to read next. I wasn't quite ready to return to Love Walked In, but I didn't have anything that was grabbing me....I thought about revisiting an old series I read previously that I know my brother in law is reading, but the books are thick, and there are a lot of them. Frankly, the task was daunting.

While at Target the other day I actually wandered through the book section and picked up Sarah's Key. It's an author I've never heard of before but a premise I enjoyed: two stories, one set in 1942 Paris, right in the midst of a war, and the other set sixty years later, also in Paris. Two lives, entwined unknowingly....a historical perspective and a modern one. I'm enjoying the book immensely, although I have to put it down at times because it gets a bit sad and rather intense....

Now that I am nearing the end, I know that I need to continue my reading quest with something new. The problem is that I need a book that is really appealing to me as a reader. I can't read a book that takes ten chapters to get going....so, if you have any good suggestions, dear readers, let me know....help me to stay on my reading journey....to build it into my life so that Aliza builds it into hers.