Books I love to Read

Books and reading are somewhat of an obsession of mine. I love buying books, both for myself and for my classroom. It's always dangerous for me to go into a bookstore. Rarely do I come out of the store without a book. My classroom library has over 400 books; I'd say that I own at least 80% of them. When it's time for Scholastic Book Orders, I just cannot seem to stop myself from buying more books. My personal library at home is also full. My bookself cannot even hold them all. There are many books that I own that I haven't read yet (partly because I like to get books from the library, so I read those instead). There just isn't enough time for me to read them all, even with the large amount of reading I do.

It wasn't always this way. I didn't always love to read. It hasn't always been the way I pass so much time. Even thought I've always been a good reader, I didn't always read a lot outside of school. Growing up, I usually spent my free time in front of the tv. I still do that a lot of the time, but I'm usually not paying a lot of attention, because I've got a book out and am busy reading. In my family you were more likely to see my mom or younger brother sitting around with a book open in front of them.

The change really came about during college. I remember one May at the end of the college school year (it was either end of freshmen or sophmore) I decided that I was going to try and read more that summer. I was already making a list in my head of books that I wanted to read. From there things just took off. I read at least 30 books that summer. Many days I would read an entire book. If not that, books didn't take me long to finish. I just seemed to fly through numerous books.

In many ways, I haven't stopped since. Sure I've paused a few times, but never for more than a few days. There are a few times when I got through a little spurt of not feeling like reading. Overall though, I'm reading most chances I get.

Now what kinds of books do I read? I'd say that almost every book I read has some aspect of romance in it. Some are Christian romance, some are not. A few years ago when I really jumped into reading, most of the books were just regular romance. It wasn't until later that I really discovered christian romance, including love inspired and christian chick-lit. Ocassionally I'll venture back to the regular romance books, but my book shelves are lined with lots of christian romance books.

I think I'm drawn to christian romance books because it takes me to a situation that I've never experienced. I'm drawn into another world; a world were the girl gets the guy, a world so different from my own. Some of the books have characters that I can easily relate to, others there are very few similarities between myself and any characters. It usually doesn't affect whether or not I'll pick up and enjoy a book.

Now, don't think that I love every book that I read. There are some books that I just can't get into; I put them down and away before I finished. There are just some time that I don't enjoy certain books. I may pick that same book up later and finish it. Sometimes I force myself to keep going in a book and finish it. Sometimes I skip to the end, just to read the ending and consider myself "finished." Yet other times I'll skip to the end, just because I cannot wait any longer to know how it ends, and then continue to read from where I left off. Generally I don't like to start a book and not finish it.

Some people cannot believe how much I read. Numerous times I've been asked, "How do you have so much time to read?" or I've heard, "I don't have time to read." My response is always something along the lines of I don't have anything else to do. I'm not in a relationship, I'm not married, I don't have kids. My time is a little more open. I can read just before bed. I can read after I take my shower in the morning. I don't have the responsiblities that others have.

That brings up the question of whether or not I would trade in all my time to read for those responsiblities? For the most part, I'd say that I'd give up all the extra time for a story fit for the books I love to read. Unfortunately reading the stories of romance cannot replace the lack of it in my life. Sometimes I worry that it gives me unrealistic expectations of how my life may be. Overall, I just want to at some point be able to say that I have my own, though unperfect it will be, "happy ending."