Reading can be a bad habit...

Believe it or not, I am seriously beginning to think that reading can be a bad habit. Of course anything that you don't take in moderation can become an addiction and can eventually lead to the bad habit of letting it take up much more of your productive time than it should.

But reading?

Who'd a thunk it?

Yes. And for me, it's getting there. Dear friends of mine know that I love a good book much more than a movie, so instead the newest release of movie, I often receive the newest edition from my favorite author. And I'm NOT complaining!! My bookshelves would be overruning if I ever put all the books I own in one particular spot.

I've been asked, "Who's your favorite author?" and the simple answer to that question would have to be 'All of them."

I would say that a good book is one that pulls me in from the beginning, but that's not always true. I can't think of a single book that I've NOT read simply because it was boring at the beginning. Eventually the plot starts to thicken and the imagination starts and before you know it, I'm as engrossed in it and can't put it down for fear of not knowing what happens next.

And that's it... that's where the obsession begins. I HAVE to know what happens next. The lights have dimmed in the theater in my head and the moving pictures are flowing across my mental screen. I can't just hit pause and walk away for a few hours. I simply cannot bring myself to do it.

Why?

It's like getting up and walking out of the theater just when you're getting into the movie. You don't want to leave because you spent the seven or eight bucks to watch the film and it would be a waste of money. Sure you could rent it later and watch it in the comfort of your home but it just wouldn't be the same. So, unless it's an emergency, most people will sit thorugh some of the most God awful films just because they don't want to admit that they wasted their money.

But a book? It's not exactly like that, now is it? Yeah, you might spend about the same amount on a paperback as you do on a movie, but the words will always be there. Unless of course your dog chews up the book or you drop it in acid or something... the print lasts and will be the same words ten years from now as it was the day you picked it up and read the back thinking it would be an interesting read.

What makes me say that reading is an obsession is just this...

As I said, dear friends often buy me books on holidays and this Christmas is no exception to that rule. YAY!!! And it doesn't matter if it's Stephen King, Edgar Allen Poe, Clive Cussler, Dean Koontz, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Anne Rice, Tom Clancy or Shakespear! Every author I have read rocks! And probably part of that is because I admire all writers and hold onto a threadbare dream that one day I'll see my own works in print. (Which is never going to happen if I don't send them to publishers... I keep telling myself this but I never follow through... sigh...)

Anyway, I digress. I got a new Dean Koonts, a new Stephen King anthology, and another who's name escapes me as I write this. (And I'm too lazy to get up and get the book from the other room.) And I've read them all already.

It's two days after Christmas day and I'VE READ THEM ALL ALREADY!

The concept of that may escape you because you cannot see the books that I'm talking about, but let me explain. I'm a voracious reader. I start a book and simply cannot put it down until I finish it. I've been like this since I was a kid.

Both my parents read when I was a child. Mom would fall asleep with her book, Dad could read a Louis L'Amour, watch a football game and listen to mom and I talk and never miss anything from any venue. And when I was in oh... second grade? They used to do their weekly shopping on Saturday. I was getting too big to put into the cart to ride with them, so they'd drop me at the county library and I'd be happy as a clam while they were gone for an hour or two shopping.

The book limit for a weekly checkout was seven, although I could normally talk the librarian into letting me have an extra one because I'd already almost finished it in the hour I waited for mom and dad to return.

It started with The Black Stallion. And then Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Then it moved to more series from more writers. Each week I got at least seven and by the time Saturday rolled around again, I was often rereading some of the weeks allotment. And this pattern continued for the rest of my life, although I no longer go to the public library, I simply read the books online or find lots of an author that interests me on ebay so that I can continue to read.

Voraciously reading!

Some people read fast and comprehend nothing of what they ingest. But I do. When I start reading, it's like the author is speaking to me from the pages and telling me the story that generates the movie behind my eyes.

And... I'm sidetracked again...

Why is my reading an obsession? *shrugs* I don't know. But I do know this. A new book in my hands will make me stay up until the wee hours of the morning and then sleep until afternoon the next day. That's not particularly healthy. I mean it might be ok if it happened only once in a great while, but that's not the case. And in truth, the only way I can control it is to NOT pick up new books. Or sometimes I substitute my writing for reading, as you can see from this blog...

Strange obsessions these... but obsessions still the same...

Obsessed in the mountains,

Dragon Lady