Read a Book...
I blogged a month or so ago my older brother came up, visited my apartment and then drove me to the Cape to see my dad and his wife. Well I wanted to share a bit more about what happened as I thought it was interesting. While in the past I’ve liked to have people over, I’ve rarely done that in my current place as it’s been a mess for most of the time I’ve been here. I mentioned in January that my landlord threatened me if I didn’t clean up… So I had to buy a new bookcase and dresser to put stuff away.
After the purchase in Jan., I have 3 bookcases- all taller then me, and because of my ‘cleaning up’ on Thursday I need ANOTHER bookcase- just not sure where I’d put it, as I have the 3 on one wall which also has my comfy chair ala Archie Bunker. My older brother saw my 3 bookcases and asked me what I considered a darn odd question:
Have you read all of these?
I thought that was a bit of a non sequitur, I mean if I went to Adam’s or Evan’s apartments I’d be pretty sure that they have read 90% of the books in said apartment. I said Yes, and then qualified my answer by pointing out that there is a shelf that I have SOME books that I haven’t read, and they’re on that shelf so I ‘remember’ to look there when I want a book to read( actually that’s one of the shelves that’s NOT filled).
I felt at the time the true proper answer, which is one of the first two things that occurred to me( the first being- that’s a stupid question) was: all those and more; as I’ve been recently borrowing books from the library because of the lack of $ in my bank account.
Later that weekend I returned to my brother’s question as my father praised me for being a reader. I thought this was odd as he rarely truly praises me and when I go to interviews I credit my father and his second wife for my love of books. His second wife was a darn good supplier as she worked at Balentine Books, which owns Del Rey and she was anal retentive enough to make my wish lists a reality. But his praise and my brother’s question made me think.
Even though my older brother and moreso my younger brother grew up around books, same as me, neither one reads. And when I say reads I mean for either ‘recreation’ or ‘information’, as at this point in my life I actually read books that I can learn from based on my own desire to learn and not because a teacher has assigned it( though I was an English major because I liked reading books). I’m not sure about my younger brother’s current habits but I know even though my older brother is currently a book agent- trying to sell books to publishers that he still only reads magazines- stuff he can read on the crapper.
I like reading. My brothers don’t. I don’t read because it makes my father proud of me or happy (though it does). At first it was a form of escapism, to find ‘strange new worlds’… worlds where my parents and brother wasn’t. But as I’ve gotten older, I like to LEARN from books. I got a degree (HA!) in Library Science because I wanted to be ARROUND books… to be exposed to knowledge that I wouldn’t normally seek out on my own. While I still read mostly fiction; I do read more and more non fiction these days like Fast Food Nation and Everything Bad is Good for You (more on that one later.).
After the purchase in Jan., I have 3 bookcases- all taller then me, and because of my ‘cleaning up’ on Thursday I need ANOTHER bookcase- just not sure where I’d put it, as I have the 3 on one wall which also has my comfy chair ala Archie Bunker. My older brother saw my 3 bookcases and asked me what I considered a darn odd question:
Have you read all of these?
I thought that was a bit of a non sequitur, I mean if I went to Adam’s or Evan’s apartments I’d be pretty sure that they have read 90% of the books in said apartment. I said Yes, and then qualified my answer by pointing out that there is a shelf that I have SOME books that I haven’t read, and they’re on that shelf so I ‘remember’ to look there when I want a book to read( actually that’s one of the shelves that’s NOT filled).
I felt at the time the true proper answer, which is one of the first two things that occurred to me( the first being- that’s a stupid question) was: all those and more; as I’ve been recently borrowing books from the library because of the lack of $ in my bank account.
Later that weekend I returned to my brother’s question as my father praised me for being a reader. I thought this was odd as he rarely truly praises me and when I go to interviews I credit my father and his second wife for my love of books. His second wife was a darn good supplier as she worked at Balentine Books, which owns Del Rey and she was anal retentive enough to make my wish lists a reality. But his praise and my brother’s question made me think.
Even though my older brother and moreso my younger brother grew up around books, same as me, neither one reads. And when I say reads I mean for either ‘recreation’ or ‘information’, as at this point in my life I actually read books that I can learn from based on my own desire to learn and not because a teacher has assigned it( though I was an English major because I liked reading books). I’m not sure about my younger brother’s current habits but I know even though my older brother is currently a book agent- trying to sell books to publishers that he still only reads magazines- stuff he can read on the crapper.
I like reading. My brothers don’t. I don’t read because it makes my father proud of me or happy (though it does). At first it was a form of escapism, to find ‘strange new worlds’… worlds where my parents and brother wasn’t. But as I’ve gotten older, I like to LEARN from books. I got a degree (HA!) in Library Science because I wanted to be ARROUND books… to be exposed to knowledge that I wouldn’t normally seek out on my own. While I still read mostly fiction; I do read more and more non fiction these days like Fast Food Nation and Everything Bad is Good for You (more on that one later.).
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