A Good Read

As you can see by the column to the left, I have been managing to read a good number of fiction books lately. I can think of three reasons why I have been able to do this lately. (Okay, four, if you count the fact that I don't have a job right now.)

First of all, I have taken to rewarding myself with reading for fun after I finish my daily allotment of my Cross Cultural Language and Academic Development book. I must say that compared to reading that terribly dry text, it has been a joy to do some fun reading in the evenings. (As a side note, I finished reading and outlining the twelfth and final chapter this past Friday, and am working this week to review what I've learned before the big test of Saturday. woo hoo.)

Secondly, I am just really enjoying our public library here. It's kind of like having my own personal bookstore. When I hear about an interesting book from a recommendation or in a magazine, I just find it in the online library catalog and request it. When it arrives, I get an email and I go in and the book is waiting there with my name on it from the Holds shelf. It's just a wonderful thing, and they have about everything in their catalog. Some books take a while to get to me, and some come quickly, but lately I've been keeping about 15 books on my request list, so there's almost always something interesting waiting for me. It also helps that the library is about four minutes from our house and on the way to Jacob's school - so it's easy to get to.

Thirdly, I'm reading a lot because reading is a good thing to do when you're in "waiting", which is where I am right now. From all indications, we're just a few weeks away from moving into our new house, which leaves us kind of between the "now" and the "not yet". Call it procrastination, but I don't want to start any new projects that will be interrupted or put too much effort into things that will all change in a few weeks. Plus, why work do hard to straighten, organize, or deep clean a home that we're only going to be in for a very short time? Well, that's my theory, anyway.

Perhaps it's one of these three/four reasons, or perhaps it's because it's just about summertime here at our house, which is always a great time to read. For whatever the reason, there's just a whole lot of joy in a new, good book, and sometimes that's reason enough on its own.