My love affair of 2009

It is no secret 2009 was a tough year for me. Luckily I made it to 2010, with a little help from a friend. You see, I had a great love affair last year. It started at the dawn of 2009, when I didn't know the year was going to be so hard. It must have been more than coincidental that our relationship bloomed when it did, because when I really needed a repreave, I alreaday had one in place. This love was great in that it was always there when I wanted it and when I didn't want my love, it never came around. We traipesed along, two by two, almost everywhere. We lounged together near the pool, on the living room's couch, even in between the sheets in my bed. This love was rekindled last year, it's first kindle sparked in kindergarten and has burned ever since, some years it was ablaze, while others it simmered. Last year it was fired up! What is this love, you might wonder. It is not as scandalous as it might seem, it is actually really innocent. My love is reading.

I've always loved reading, I read my first chapter book, "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder, in kindergarten. "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis in first grade. I would be late for the school bus in third grade because I was engorssed in Judy Blume and didn't want to put her down. This fascination stayed with me through college where I took every literature class I could. When I taught school, it is no surprise I taught reading and language arts. I wanted the students to fall in love with reading as much as I was.

Reading isn't just about words and stories. It is so very much more. It is knowledge, experience, and travel. It is insight. It is empowering. It is escape from reality, which I needed last year. As a wife and mother, it is easy to lose yourself and your passions when you are supporting everyone else's. So, it was with great delight that I challenged myself to read 100 books last year. It was solace last summer when our reality was very bleak.

I read just about anything and everything, from chick-lit, to biograhies, to mystery, and everything else in between. It was so interesting to read non-fiction as I could see my life in parallel to great figures in history. It was also eye opening to read of other's struggles and see how they progressed from awful oppresion, like Jeanette Walls. It was enjoable to read Agatha Christie, even many years after publication. I fell in love with our founding fathers. I was shocked with Arthur Miller's, "The Crucible". I saw what the hoopla was all about with "Revoltionary Road", and "The Reader". This challenge expanded my world view, as some of my personal opinions have even shifted as a result from this exercise.

It was exhausting to read so much in so little time and so when 2010 rang in, I decided to stop reading so much. I pretty much stopped. But as time marches on, I get this itch to return to my beloved with the same ferocity as last year. So, even though there are only 7months left this year, I have decided to again read 100 books. But maybe, I will push it to 101 to top myself from last year. Since I only have 7 under my belt thus far, I need to get started!