Homage

I know a lot of people -virtual as well as "physical" friends -who don't just like to read but who love to read and, I consider myself to being one of those who does love to read.

The only problem I have with that is that I love to embroider too and so far, I haven't figured out a way in which I can work on my embroidery stuff and also, to read simultaneously.

So the result is that one suffers from no attention when the other takes over the spotlight.

One thing though, for sure, is if I get into reading a book and am really liking it, I have to keep reading, pushing myself to stay awake for as long as it may take (if possible) until I finish the book. Embroidery, on the other hand -well, sometimes I can manage to push myself -and my needle -up and down for fairly long periods of time, but definitely not keep going until the project is completed. To be able to do that would really be a very, very long period of insomnia, for sure!

Right now, I do have an embroidery project I should be working on however, the other day I made a purchase at Walmart of a book that I thought looked interesting. Actually, I thought it was the book daughter Mandy was reading a couple weeks ago but which she hadn't brought up with her over Thanksgiving to share it with me. And, I thought perhaps this book would make for a nice gift for Christmas for someone on my gift list.

Now my kids all know that if I buy a book to give to one of them (or even if it is intended for a non-family member) the odds that I will read the book before giving it to whoever I thought would like it are very high that as my kids say about this habit of mine, I give "second-hand" books because I read them all first.

There's a method to my madness, if you will, in doing that though. Especially on those rare occasions when I find several books that appeal to me and that I think maybe this or that person probably would like to read too, in that if I read it before giving it, it helps me determine who I think would most enjoy this book!

Well, I decided to read this particular book - "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman -and it was, for me, one of those books that I didn't want to put down until I finished it.

But this time the reason I couldn't put it down was a bit strange, even for me, because after I got started reading it, the story was very familiar to me -like I had read it before. However, if I did read it before, it is the first time I have NOT recognized that I'd already read it by simply by looking at the title and author's name nor by any of the little blurb of description about the book on the cover either!

But the more I read, the more I knew I had at least had this book at some time and had read at least half or more of it at some time but I also knew I had never finished it because when I got close to the end, it then became new territory, unexplored previously by me on one of my reading binges.

Seriously, I have never had that happen before -NEVER! I've had books that I have begun reading and not finished for one reason or another but I have always recognized the titles and authors of them upon sight of those books.

The thing is there are some books that I have read and reread several times, including two very large books -"Gone With The Wind" and "Not As A Stranger!" But the book I have read and reread several times was one I read in the 6th grade and for the next 4 years, I took that book out, again and again from the bookmobile and reread it -"Jonica's Island" by Gladys Malvern! Much as I really did (and still do) love GWTW -book and the movie -"Jonica's Island" is my all-time favorite book ever. Although it's been well over five decades that have passed now since the last time I read that book and yes, it is a young girl's type of reading material, I got the bright idea about 2-3 years ago that I'd like to get a copy of it and reread it and then, pass it along to my granddaughter, Miss Maya, who is becoming a bit of a voracious reader now too.

However, in trying to find a copy of it, all I found was information that it is long ago out of print and a copy of it now, if one were available to purchase, would run me close to $300 which is considerably out of my price range! I can only hope that someday Maya will have the good fortune of coming across this book in a library someplace and read it and fall in love with that story as much as I did, many, many years ago!

Now that I have polished off this latest book, I can  return to working on my embroidery project again until the urge to read comes over me again if I should happen to come across another book that I just can't bring myself to put down!

It would be nice if I could bring myself to pick up and finish one of a few books I have here that I started to read but have yet to finish -rare though that type are in my bookshelf. I'm thinking about the copy of "The Count of Monte Cristo" which I started to read over 11 years ago and have not yet completed reading it or "Paradise" by Toni Morrison which I have started to read at least three times now and have yet to get beyond about completing maybe half of that book! (When Oprah said, as she recommended that book for her Book Club that it was a difficult book to read, she sure just wasn't whistling Dixie there!)

Wish me luck in trying to divide my time between my two favorite things equally now! (And here's hoping those I often give books to give me some hints about books they'd like to receive too!)