Do You Really Read All Those Books?

Ever since I started writing Sundays from Somewhere, and recommending books or telling people what I'm reading, people who've known me for a very long time have slowly started asking me their burning question:

Are you really reading that much?

And... I understand the skepticism. At first, the answer was, well, not in real time. I was mostly telling people about books I'd already read. Once I ran out of those, I had no choice but to start reading more.

I did not anticipate this happening. And yet, my new habit of reading one to two books every single week is my favorite thing ever.

Sometimes I'm listening to a book and finishing 1.5 others in the same week, which is absolutely bonkers if you were a close friend of mine 5 years ago. Or, frankly, if you were a member of any one of the book clubs I joined and then never, ever went to. Or if I went, I socialized and then sat quietly for the discussion piece.

I am VERY easily swept away into a book. Sometimes putting one down feels a little disorienting. I look around, remember where I am and what my actual life is, and need a minute to step back into it.

A really good book will stay with me like that for a while. I'll go about my day still thinking about the characters and their lives, like part of my brain hasn't completely left the story yet.

I actually think there were years when I avoided reading because that feeling was almost too much for me. I needed to be in one place or the other, so I chose regular life.

Now, I welcome it.

Part of what I love is how quiet my brain gets when I'm reading. For however long I'm in that book, I'm not thinking about work, tomorrow, or the 14 things I suddenly remembered I need to do.

I'm just there. 

I will also abandon a book VERY easily. If I feel even one ounce of “I need to finish that,” I'll stop reading it. There are too many books I actually want to read to waste time finishing one I don't. So if you'd like to see my very long list of books I've read half of, let me know!

Right now, I'm reading more than I ever have before, and I absolutely love it. So, to everyone who has known me for years and is wondering if I'm actually reading all these books:

Yes. I really am! No one is more surprised than me.

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