Swestie Loves a Good Book

I went to a small private elementary school that embraced several "alternative" learning styles. When other kids were learning math facts, we were learning sophisticated ways to count on our fingers. When other kids were using stilted reading primers we were (forced to be) reading real books... fifty of them each year.

Yes, fifty. Now, if a kid already appreciated the escape of reading, this was great news. But I was not one of those kids. I, who was generally a cheerful and diligent student, slugged through my way through fifty books for three years, with all of the joy of a pig in a bath. As a matter of fact, the one time I remember being sent to my room as a kids was one weekend when I had until Monday to read 5 books... my mom brought my meals to my room on a tray so I wouldn't be distracted. After the third year of forced indenture to books, I equated reading with torture... and luckily changed schools too.

I would willingly pick up about one book per year after that, but encountered a change when I heard some friends in high school talking about a novel they were reading for English class... it wasn't at classic! (Gasp!) It wasn't a text book! (Oh my!) It was a current bestseller at the time! (Almost cool!) I read that book, and it was the first piece of fiction that spoke to my adolescent heart in a way that made me want to read more and more and more.

As an adult, I have loved vacation for the chance to put the feet up and read non-stop, but I've always been a little disappointed that I haven't made time to read more. Recently I became a part of a reading group that has been so much fun and gotten me regularly reading again! Yea! Thank you book club! I love reading suggestions that I wouldn't have necessarily found myself and going on the journey of a book with friends around me.

Well, along these lines, I've reconnected with an old friend and she has a wonderful book blog called Babbette's Book Blog. And for 2010, she's posed a reading challenge which I hereby accept. Read about it here.

I'm going to devise my plan for the challenge and let you know... we'll have to see how it goes! Happy reading!