Reading

Sometimes I am amazed at the randomness of topics that come to me while I'm at work.

Today, while I'm doing nothing even remotely close to reading I think, wouldn't it be fun to blog about book reviews? Which from there went to I think it'd be really great to have a book club. Well, as anyone with small children knows, finding the time to do that now would be difficult...unless I got involved in a book club with women who also had small children and realized that it may take a month or two to read a book.

But I digress.

When Troy and I were flying to Mexico, we were not seated together due to the last minute change to our flight. I don't know why this came to me today, but it did. I'm sitting there, reading a book that I had been wanting to read for months but had saved specifically for this trip, knowing that I would finally have the time to sit and read a few chapters without either falling asleep or feeling like I was neglecting my husband. Kathy Reichs - Devil Bones. Kathy Reichs is an AWESOME author. She's a forensic anthropologist and uses a lot of big words that I really don't understand sometimes, but she has the ability to incorporate that into her writing in a really interesting way. I've read all of her books and am anxiously awaiting the release of 206 Bones this summer. (Also how I was able to answer a random question at the Moon Palace Resort in Cancun) So anyway, I'm putting my book away because we are getting ready to prepare for landing when the gentleman seated next to me (and another side note - I'm not a talker on airplanes. I like that downtime for myself unless I'm sitting with Troy) and says, "It's great to see a young person reading something other than those Twilight books. Every young woman I've seen lately has been reading those" to which I replied, "Yeah, that's a good series - I already read them."

I'm not sure what his point was, but the impression I got from that small interaction was that he felt that series was just not worthy reading material. You know, who cares what the content of the book is as long as people - especially young people - are reading? I always hated hearing about schools that wanted to do away with Harry Potter because it promoted witchcraft. WHATEVER. I would love to live at Hogwarts and know all the spells, but I know that it is fantasy - it's not real. It doesn't make me want to go join some Wiccan cult. Young people are not going to turn into witches because they read Harry Potter. Young people will not want to become vampires by reading the Twilight Saga. In fact, if anything, I think the Twilight Saga is anti-vampire. None of the vampire characters want to be vampires - Edward doesn't want Bella to change over. Rosalie is jealous of human girls because they can do things she can't. My brother who has not read an entire book since he was probably 10 and reading the Goosebumps series by R. L. Stine turned ME on to Twilight. I figured if he read the book, and continued to read the whole series, it must be good. And it was. So why do you, random airplane man, care if young people are reading Twilight instead of some epic novel? The point is they are reading. Using their imaginations. Not playing video games.

That's my rant for today. I'm currently reading "Promise in Death" by JD Robb (aka Nora Roberts) and it is sooo good. I'm about 20 pages into it (and I started it three days ago), but it is going to be just like her other "In Death" novels. Very good.

I read to Lauren a lot. I want her to enjoy reading because I think it is a good thing. I'm kind of picky with the types of books I read and often get stuck on certain authors. Fortunately, through those authors I find new ones, and will try to read every book they've written. I have read every book in the JD Robb series and every Kathy Reichs book, every Sophie Kinsella book - although I do have one more to read where she is using her alias Madeline Wickham, and am working through Lisa Gardner's books.

One day, I'll read Harry Potter with Lauren. I'll pass on Twilight to her. If she reads, I am happy.