What have I been doing all month?

In efforts to save money and get back on track after the holidays, I turned to books. I'm reading my 8th book this month. My goal is to read 40 books this year. Crazy, I know. Obsessed, maybe. Hear me out, because I have to justify it to someone. I LOVE reading. I remember many days coming home from school to find the house clean and my mom sitting on the couch reading a book. I also remember trying to tell her something and her response would always be "ah huh" since she was probably not paying attention to anything I said. I remember thinking that she really loved books and I wished I could be as enthusiastic about books as she was, however high school happened. Have you ever wondered why they make you read the most awful boring books in high school. "The Old Man and the Sea" for example was painful. Who wants to read 50 pages of some old dude fishing. No thanks. So my perception of books was that they were all boring and had to illicit some literary analysis. Then came college and again, books were a means to an end. In college, I read a lot of Spanish novels and stories since I was a Spanish major. Again, these stories weren't the worst, but I wouldn't call them entertaining. Textbooks were, well shoot me now. Definitely not "light reading." So after college I really just enjoyed watching TV and didn't do any reading besides "Harry Potter." Then along came "Twilight." I had just had Zachary and my friend brought it over and said I had to read it. I didn't tell her that I wasn't much of a reader, but I took it and said, "what the heck." I devoured it. I remember going upstairs to nurse Zachary and I would read the entire time. Phil would come hunt me down like 2 hours later and wonder what I was doing. I told him that "oops, it's time to feed the baby again." It only took me a day or so to read it. After that I was hooked on books.

After moving to Reno, I checked out the library and felt I had to start reading some of the classics, so I read "Whithering Heights" (please don't torture yourself into thinking you have to read this book. What an awful depressing book. Terrible), Pride and Prejudice (excellent since I'd seen the movie like a dozen times) and some other ones. I found out that there were some good books out there that didn't necessarily have to do with vampires and wizards. Then I decided to start a bookclub since we didn't have one in the area. Through bookclub I found friends who also enjoy reading and some, like me, who just got into the reading game. I signed up for http://www.goodreads.com/ and found some great books and bookreviews (you can check out my books on the side panel of the blog if you click on my bookshelf). I also found out that you can search for books from the library and put them on hold. Imagine that, you don't even have to go into the library. I just search on goodreads which books I want to read and then place them on hold on the library website. The library then e-mails me when it's ready and I pick it up at the drive thru window. It's glorious.

So back to my justification, this month I'm trying to save money so I have been reading. I clean the house in the morning and at afternoon naptime, I reward myself with sitting down and reading a book. I've read some good ones this month. I love fantasy since it takes you into a whole new world. I enjoy "escape" books that for a few hours you can be in a different place. Phil doesn't see the draw, but it's great for me (Sometimes you just need to escape from all the whining and fighthing and needing of little kids. Helps keep me sane!). Hence, with all this time reading, I haven't had time to browse the internet to search for the next home improvement project or go to the store to buy things I think I need.

So next time you are trying to save money, pick up a book at the library!