obsessed with reading

I scratch my head, after I stop beating it against my desk, over the state rolling back child labor laws to allow 16 year olds to work later on school nights at less than minimum wage. I can hardly believe the rationale here: saving money for college, helping keep Mom and Dad off the welfare rolls, keeping them from "vegging" in front of the TV or playing video games, etc. What a bunch of claptrap. I wonder, in what universe we now live, why there is not an emphasis on MORE studying, more hours at books, more parental involvement in regulating the time and activities of kids? Really folks, you cannot manage to keep the kids off the texting, the TV, the gaming? Shame on you.

I digress slightly but am getting to the meat of it here:

I just finished reading Dawn Potter's blog entry about book obsession and take heart that I have friends who value reading above commerce. OK, so the barn needed cleaning and good for you Dawn to do that. BUT, first and foremost you are a woman of words and books. I ought to do some manual labor today myself and will later (those stacks of books need dusting, my desk needs organizing).

I too am obsessed with reading and have favorites to which I return and return. Big for me, top of my list is The Outermost House. But let me give you a few others to consider:

House of the Seven Gables, by my ancestor Hawthorn
Country of the Pointed Firs, by Sarah Orne Jewett
Plato's Republic (not a novel, but a favorite read)
Fahrenheit 451 (take heed, ye education-killing-legislators)
The Scarlet Letter (another Hawthorn)


These few are but a few... of course I read poetry more than anything else, but when I want to center myself or get gone from the "usual," I go to these.

The point is we ought to want to have this kind of an obsession. We want our kids/grandkids/students to have this.

So we keep on reading and hope our example is not falling simply on our own choir. Thanks Dawn for admitting your addiction. Don't go to any 12-step programs for reading any time soon.