For as long as I can remember, I have loved to read. I will honestly read just about anything I can get my hands on. If y’all don’t believe me, let me just say that I have even been known to read articles in Bowhunter’s Magazine and learn all about how Dale done shot his first 8 point buck using some kind of fancy new broadhead.
Let me repeat. I will read anything.
Now, before I mistakenly earn a reputation as someone who yearns for knowledge, let me set the record straight that, for me, reading is relaxing. It’s a way of slowing down one part of my brain and letting another part work. And lest y’all think my brain is oh so complex, I just mean that when I’m reading something, I’m focused on whatever it is and not the millions of other things that might be going on around me.
When I was young, I read all of the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books over and over again. I adored Ramona Quimby, Ralph the Motorcycle Mouse, Little House on the Prairie and Soup. Then, as my reading tastes changed I adored anything by Judy Blume. I bet I read Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself, Otherwise Known as Shelia the Great, and Are You There God, It’s me Margaret?, no less than 50 times.
One of my favorite things to do was go to Waldenbooks in the mall and pick out new books to read. I remember I always begged to get at least two or three at a time and one time I even cleaned off the shelves in my closet to make my own library.
I realize that between that admission and the fact that I just confessed yesterday that I dressed up like Sandy from Grease, that y’all might be picturing a trampy looking elementary school age librarian wannabe. And you might be right.
I’ve read everything from the latest chick lit to the classics, and for the most part, I really prefer to read fiction. The last time I read something non-fiction it was What to Expect When You’re Expecting and it scarred me for life. It was the reading equivalent of wanting to put my fingers in my ears and say “LALALALALA I CAN’T HEAR WHAT YOU’RE SAYING”.
Anyway, my point is that I adore reading.
I will never forget that the day after P and I got married, we boarded a three hour flight headed to Miami and then the Bahamas. We were sitting in first class (because we played the honeymoon card) and as the plane took off, I pulled out the first of three books I had packed for the trip. I sat back, sipped my wine, ate my heated mixed nuts (oh yes, they heat them when you’re in first class), and started to read. Next to me, P pulled out a hunting magazine, thumbed through it for about five minutes, put it up, looked at me and said “what next?”.
It was at that moment that I realized I had married a non-reader. Don’t get me wrong, he can read if he can sit still long enough to read, it’s just not an activity he prefers. The only books I’ve ever really seen him read are by this Capstick guy who writes about hunting in Africa and uses sentences like a leopard leaving someone with “a bloody, red toupee”. And how can anyone resist that?
For the most part, P sticks to reading hunting magazines and of course, his hardcover edition of the Cabela’s catalog.
So, seeing that I already have one family member who doesn’t hold reading in the esteem he should, I have worked hard to instill a love of books and reading in Caroline. From the time she was born, I would read at least one book to her every night and now that she’s older, she loves to go to the library and pick new books to read. Some of my favorite times are when she’s sitting in my lap as we read a book together before bedtime (and not just because she’s going to bed).
Last night, I had to attend a dinner for the “bank” and so I got her fed, bathed and in jammies, but P had to put her to bed. I got home and he said everything had gone really well.
Tonight, we’re sitting in the living room after bathtime and she looks at me and asks, “Mama, do you have to go to work tonight?” and I told her, “Nope, Mama’s staying home.”
She looked at me in all seriousness and said, “I’m so glad because Daddy doesn’t read very good.”
She’s obviously never heard him read the Cabela’s catalog.