A Good Book, Bath, and Children

There is nothing I love more than to be drawn into the lives of the main characters in my favorite books! As long as I can remember I've had a love of reading. Oh I wasn't a world class student by any means! In fact, until I was a junior in high school I was happy just to get C's and occassionally B's or A's. But that didn't stop me from reading.

Actually I think my love for reading my have caused my low grades! Once I start a book, it is Very hard for me to put it down until it is finished. So if I started a book during the school week, my homework came second to figuring out what was going to happen next in the story! Once I realized how addicted to reading I was, I began to limit how much I would read during the school year - especially around major testing weeks. I noticed a big difference in my test scores during the times I wasn't reading a good book. But boy did I miss the books!

I've always had this gift of tuning out the world when I read. You can be standing right next to me talking, and if my face is in a book, I won't hear a word you are saying. (That gift has since grown to tuning out my children's voices when they are fighting or being really loud - drives my husband nuts!) But there is something about a good book that just takes my full attention.

My favorite books to read are Christian fiction, but I also love romance, popular best sellers, and an occassional horror novel! So far I haven't really found any sci-fi or fantasy novels that can hold my attention (sorry hubby); but put anything else in my hands and I'll probably read it. I love Lori Copeland's old romance novels, Karen Kingsbury's Christian Fiction, Dean Koontz's horror, and Lorna Landvik's Bestseller. *hehe*

That's the book I'm currently reading - Lorna Landvik's "Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons". I don't know why I pick this book. I think I was just browsing the book aisle at Kroger's while my daughter was at gymnastics and the title just jumped out at me. It's a really good book too! Kind of predictable but then again...so are most novels now adays!

Even when I don't have a book to read, stories are constantly running through my head. Sometimes I am transported back to a story that I've recently read, others I make up my own stories. I have to say that I have one WILD imagination! If I only had a little extra time I'd attempt to write my own novel. Alas, procrastination is my downfall! Still, that doesn't stop the stories from lulling me to sleep each night.

Friends and relatives get a kick out of the fact that I take two hour baths (or longer) all the time. But honestly, I have a very understanding and loving husband who knows I need a break, and so while he helps out with the kids; I get my down time! So how, you may ask, do I stay in the tub so long? Easily. I lounge with my hands out of the water with a good book, and my feet propped up on the other side half of the bath. (If I left them in they'd itch like crazy when I got out - learned that from experience!) And once I actually start reading, I lose all sense of time. It's usually the screams of my husband; or the constant interruptions from my children that let me know when I've been in too long.

But I have to say that my favorite time to read is when my oldest daughter joins me in my bed. We'll curl up together on the pillows and just read. Sometimes we'll stop and talk about what's going on in her life, or she'll ask me to read a few pages of her book that she thought were really good! Or - like the time I was reading a Sister Chick Book and was laughing so hard that I had tears rolling down my cheeks, she'll grab MY book to see what is so funny! We don't do this very often though. Jenna doesn't love books like I do, so sometimes it's like pulling teeth the get her to want to read at all! And then there are the other children. If I let one kid in my bed, I have to let them all...and sometimes I just don't feel like that - you know?

But my prayer is that all of my children when grow to have a love of reading if not as strong as mine; then one that will at least occassionally allow them to escape reality and live in the lives of the characters for a short while.