Why I don't read for pleasure

super awesome collection of YA lit

This might sound weird, but I have no self control when it comes to reading. For example, today I read for six hours straight since I needed to finish a book...I've already read before. I don't know what it is about a good book but I get completely sucked it and the rest of the world gets completely shut out. I also have a tendency to lose common sense when I read. Such as today I read in the sun for two and a half hours without sunscreen....my skin is currently bright pink and radiating heat.

Thankfully, with age (said as if I'm 95...) I've learned to only read when I have no responsibility at all. So for the next few weeks until I start nannying I vow to read two books a week.

I had a history professor last semester who would tell us after a book we read that "he promised we would appreciate it when we're older". And while this little line just made me angry when I was reading 400 pages of Di'Lampadusa and King Lear I realized there was a whole lot of truth to the statement. I just finished re-reading J. Courtney Sullivan's Commencement, and while it isn't perfect I appreciate this book so much more than when I read it the first time the summer before college.

I hope this little sentiment reigns true for all of the books that I loathed in high school; To Kill A Mockingbird for example. And while I loved The Great Gatsby in high school I feel like reading it as a grown up college student (well kinda) will give it alot more meaning than when I read it as an angst ridden junior in high school.