OK. I hate answering this question, because it is impossible. I am a voracious reader. When I am not being a mom, housekeeper or seamstress, my nose is in a book. I've always been this way, since I was a kid. I come from a reading family. My mother had a house full of books, and while I may not have a house-full, I've got enough. I am mainly a fiction reader, although I have been known to be intrigued by the odd piece of non-fiction. This is the only bookshelf in the house, and it houses 90% of my books. That's not including the other half that I gave away in a moment of strength, when I realized that there was nowhere else to put my books in this house, without bringing in another piece of furniture. And I am loathe to do that as there is nowhere to put it unless we start crowding shit. And when you have a kid, you realize, the less furniture you have, the better. So this is it. And with the exception of that shelf up on the left, the shelves are full.
I am also a member of the Los Angles Public Library, and often put books on hold to read. But trying to get any bestsellers in this town is a matter of timing, that I obviously don't have. Those senior citizens are spry when it comes to snatching up the good ones! So the Library is usually my non-fiction source.
No room in the house, no luck at the library, what's a girl to do? Yeah, I could watch TV like the rest of the country. And as you can see from the pic, that's obviously a priority in this house. But as you may have also noticed, that large screen has the habit of playing kids shows if its on during the day. I do have a couple of shows on the Tivo, but they aren't always a priority.
Luckily for me, the Old Man got me a Kindle for my birthday last year. And while the print industry is up in arms about the transition from print to e-readers, I am VERY happy with it. Yes, I like to read a "real" book, and if I want to, I have this bookshelf and the library. But I also like the fact that I currently have @20 books on this thing, and it weighs less than a pound and fits in my purse. I am not making my husband crazy by bringing MORE books into the house and looking for creative places to store them. I am not also spending TONS on new books, as the kindle books are usually cheaper (thus the print industry's anxiety). And I can read any strange fiction I want (like the weird goth/vampire/greek mythology series I am into) without having to skip volumes because the book store doesn't have them. Or new bestsellers. Or a million books on Autism (those things start to get heavy). Or an encyclopedia on mixed drink recipes...Now it does have some downfalls. If I get a book I want to reference (like one of my essential oils books) you can't just turn to the index and turn to the page--there aren't page numbers. I've had to learn quickly to bookmark a page that I think will interest me in the future so that I can find it later.
so, when I get a free couple of minutes to myself, my favorite being the 10-20 minutes I have to wait for the Ben's school bus home, or when I'm not reading a Greenspan book on Floortime, or another book on ABA strategies, I take a moment and read. Often, its to the detriment of folding my laundry, or keeping up with the current episode of Pawn Stars, but I can live with that.
