Reading

Reading is a strange journey for me. I have to admit that I did not read a single story, book, or assignment until I moved to Texas my senior year of high school. I hate to admit it, but it was my goal to finish with high grades while never reading any assignment. College suffered for this poor attitude. But I was rescued by the Texas high school experience. I was lumped in with others of my GPA (presumed capacity) and soon realized that these nerds where not cheating and loafing like I was. The teacher knew what she was doing too. I could simply not make it though this class unless I lost my reading virginity and got down and dirty (sorry for that crass comparison). Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies were the first two assigned books I ever read right through to the end.

My memory is so pervasive in that old vow that I actually forgot about that one night stand with Jeremiah Denton. Well, here goes another admission. While still a very underachieving Alabama youth I stole away with When Hell Was in Session by Jeremiah Denton and could not put it down. It was the first book I ever finished. And I finished it in a couple of days. It felt the same as that morning when everybody else was sleeping in--I found myself mesmerized to tears by watching Ann of Green Gables on PBS. Oh, the shame a young southern male would endure had he been caught enjoying Ann Shirley's stories (or watching PBS for that matter). At least my first book was macho.

A friend recently blogged about the risky side of reading too much internet claptrap. I have over 300 feeds coming to my GoogleReader that I check daily...throughout the day, of course. I really use them as a clipper service to dredge the internet's ocean floor for stuff I'd like to read up on. It does have a downside. I find that reading headlines reduces the amount of time that I actually READ. Oh, no! That is not the point of the clipper service.