Reading Hour

I also feel uneasy about setting everything else aside to "merely" read. I know all of the good that comes from reading: setting an example to my children for a love of lifetime learning; my own lifetime learning; knowledge and literary edification; sharpening the saw a la Stephen Covey...all that jazz.

Even so, I still have to actively stifle Guilt - with a capital 'g' - every time I indulge.

But stifle it I do. This week I picked up Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged for the first time since I was twelve. It took me slogging through the first chapter, and then I was hooked. I am also incredulous that I read it when I was twelve. I certainly didn't "get" it than. I am devouring it now.

I am thankful for a husband who is patient with my reading style, which is to obsess over my book and read it compulsively to the exclusion of all reality until the book is done. It helps that I am a fast reader. It helps that he loves books, too. It helps that I brought Suzanne Collins' Mockingjay home from the library for him this weekend.

We have spent a lot of our time sitting side by side on our bed, equally engrossed in our respective book. we used to do this all the time when we were newlyweds. But now we have seven children. So, today, we have taken turns being the parent on duty. We have also benevolently ignored our children for responsible stretches of time.

Thus far, no one has starved, drowned, run away, or been abducted by aliens. And the house has not burned down. He is almost done with his book, I am not even half way through mine. Good thing I am a quick reader.

I am grateful for good books, a good husband, good kids, and the unparalleled pleasure of reading hour(s).

What are you blessed with today?