Books

First I wanted to thank everyone who has been so kind to me and shown your support. I appreciate your comments, your texts and emails and your prayers. I am grateful to be surrounded and cared for by good people.

I could not do it without the verbal, tangible, emotional and spiritual support of dear friends and thoughtful family members.

Thank you all.

So.... I have always loved to read.

When I was a little girl I would spend hours reading books. I read after school, late into the night and for hours at a time on summer days. Books to me have always been a gateway to different experiences, new frontiers, and uncharted emotions. I love a good book and am usually more happy to read than to watch something on a screen.

Thankfully, our girls love to read too and will choose to sit and read after school, on the weekend or at bedtime. They love books. One of our Phoenix friends once told me a darling story. He and his wife had offered to watch the kids to Jake and I could go to a Sun's game (with their tickets) and were charged with putting the girls to bed. They followed the routine which outlined that the girls could read for 30 minutes before turning out the light. Our friend commented that when he went in to enforce the lights out rule, the girls begged to keep reading and he was at a crossroads of what to do. He knew they needed sleep, but found it unusual that they were begging to read with the same intensity as if they were begging for candy. He found it hard to tell a child "stop reading" when generally reading is a good thing for kids to do.

I love that we are a reading family.

Understandably, my ability to read over the last few years has diminished drastically. Reading is a pleasure for a more stable lifestyle and having hours to read has not been a luxury I've enjoyed as much as I used to.

So as I have found a few more free hours in the day I have been able to spend more time reading and wanted to share some of my thoughts about books.

1. I love the public library

Both Phoenix and Provo have wonderful public libraries and we try and take full advantage of them. Our Phoenix house was only a quarter mile away from a library branch and the girls and I would walk there weekly (in the winter...drive in the summer) to get books.

When at the library we check out a LOT of books.

Usually 50-60 at one time.

We keep them for several weeks and that seems to give the kids time to work through their pile. Especially when they were little and Jake and I were reading to them, we would tire of reading the SAME books over and over so we got new books often to add some variety to story time at night.

I think the same thing is true for children. If you only have a few books at home, and your kids have read them all, they will need new material or else they will get bored with reading. Since I don't want to buy a hundred dollars worth of books each month, I can check them out for free each week at the library.

I know what you might be thinking...if you check out 50 books some will get lost!

That is true and has happened to us at least once a year.

However, we usually keep the books in the same place so we know where to find them and I consider the cost of replacing one or two lost books a year to be a nominal expense for the trove of books the kids have had access to and been able to read during that time.

So even paying $50.00 a year to replace several lost books seems very reasonable to me to have had access to over 600 books in that same time.

2. I love audiobooks

This goes without saying- audiobooks are awesome and allow you to have all the advantages of reading while having your hands free.

I have a giant yard with tons of garden beds (topic for another day...not ideal for a widow) and as I've tried to start pruning I've had an audiobook going to help keep my mind occupied. Our library checks them out on a system called overdrive, but you can also get audiobooks as CDs or through subscription services such as audible.

I like to play an audiobook on a road trip as well. The kids and I get engrossed in books as we drive and Jake and I commonly checked out an audiobook for our drive to and from Phoenix to Utah. It gave us something to do with the time, taught us new ideas, and inspired great conversations about the things we listened to.

3. I love good writing

This is hard to describe but I love to read good writing. Words that move me, stories with problems to resolve, sentences with correct grammar and structure, and language that is descriptive and beautiful.  Good writing.

I think good writing fits the saying "you know it when you read it."

I love finding authors who write well and find myself drawn to their stories as their words elicit my imagination, my heart and my mind in their tales. Good writing pulls you away from reality and allows you an escape into another world.

In this vein I have loved using the website Goodreads.com to share book ideas with friends and family.  It is a tool that allows you to share books you've read, that you want to read and that you are currently reading with your friends and rate them and write a review.  I have several friends who appreciate good writing and I can count on their recommendations to provide me with my next good read.

4. I love book clubs

I belonged to the best book club in the world in Phoenix and miss attending with those dear friends each month. It was a book club where one thing always happened- people actually read the book!

I know, surprise, surprise, but there are enough "book clubs" out there that are a disguise for a women's night out with the pretense of talking about a book where few people actually even cracked the cover. Don't get me wrong- I LOVE those kind of girls night out and talking opportunities, but in my mind calling something a book club necessitates the reading of the book.

Our book club met in the day and it was one thing I participated in that served just to fill my cup. I had to find babysitters for our kids for years to be able to attend, but it was such a boost to my mind that Jake regularly encouraged me to do whatever I needed to do to make my attendance possible.

We would start our meeting with someone giving a bio of the author and talking about their background. Then for the next hour or so another person would have a prepared list of discussion questions about the book and we would have the most wonderful conversations about the characters, plot and takeaways from that particular read.  Then we'd end with a pot-luck luncheon where we had time to gab and share about our families and it was always the perfect way to spend a morning.

I have been warmly invited to attend a co-ed book club here in Provo over the last year and have really loved this new book club experience. People come prepared to discuss the book and there is usually some sort of refreshment and I enjoy the interaction and stimulation that comes from participating with this new group of friends.

Book clubs are also great because they expand your reading repertoire by exposing you to books you might not read on your own. They also ensue discussion and collaboration about the things you learned during the read and are an enriching way to connect with other people.

So that's my take on books.

I just finished listening to one of my ALL TIME favorite books.

These is my Words. 

Oh it is such a wonderful, compelling, inspiring and raw story. I was in tears listening to it again and could relate SO much to the main character's feelings and relationship with her spouse.

It's a good one. I highly recommend it.

Books.

I love them. I learn from them. I escape in them. And I am so grateful for them.