Escape

I hear footsteps, and I switch off the flashlight. It's dark. I rustle underneath my covers and assume the asleep position. I don't want to get caught for---reading. Of all the sneaky things I attempted during my childhood, I believe reading was my most frequent crime. I'm pretty sure my parents knew I was up late---but looking back I am grateful that they allowed this love affair with the written word.

Without classes and reading lists, I now have more time to peruse the great collection of the local library. In the past few weeks I have found a young adult fiction novel I've been wanting to read for years, a few books written from the life of Boyd K. Packer, and like always, a nice selection of juvenile literature. I seem to just love children's literature. I feel that working with kids has only given me an even greater excuse to love and read it quite frequently.

Recently I have found myself looking online for deals on picture books, and browsing book fair catalogs. An obsession---possible. Still acceptable---I choose to believe it's still appropriate for someone of my age.

I love the kid section of libraries. I wish it were more acceptable to find young adults just chillin in the kid section---reading one of the caldecott award winners. Why is it that only the children's section of the library has a reading section with pillows and comfy benches? If only these comforts were appropriate in the rest of the library.

Why is it that I love books?

I love to imagine the story as I read. I love to imagine the colors, the smells, the place, the people---I feel like I can escaped to another paradise for a time or two. It's fun to imagine, it's therapeutic to imagine, it's distracting and necessary to just sit down, relax and pick up a good book.

Favorite place to read

Hammocks, couches, grass lawns, orchards, under the shade of a big tree, on my porch at night when the mosquitoes aren't out, in forts, tents, and under the light of a flashlight when my roomie is trying to sleep.

In some ways, things haven't changed much. Still stay up too late reading---but now I just don't have to turn off the flashlight as often.