As a kid, I was a reading nut, thanks to my dad. It was really great that he actually subscribed to a lot of reading material. A significant part of my childhood was spent reading volumes of National Geographic, Time Magazine and Reader’s Digest. At such a young age, I was already exposed to real stuff. I never really read any of those titles in the Junie B Jones book list or other children’s books series. What I read was really adult material. As a child, I already understood how the nuclear arms race went, or how the Menendez brothers slaughtered their parents. Parents today might go off the rails upon reading this, but it was just normal for me, and my parents were really good people. I guess I just matured real early compared to most children, who were probably raised on a steady diet of Barbie dolls and Rainbow Brite cartoons.
In any case, reading books and any kind of reading material I could get my hands on has served me well my entire life. My only problem is that I haven’t done any real reading in the past ten years. Oh sure, I have read all the Harry Potter novels, but that, for me, was just for fun. Although the Harry Potter books were well-written, I never really took them seriously. Books like Sophie’s Choice by William Styron and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller are more up my alley, and I haven’t touched a single book that closely resembles them in scope and prose for the last ten years.
If you ask me, I’d probably blame my very busy working life for this. Then again, I’m a writer, so I’m supposed to do a lot of reading, right? Somehow, however, I just could not find the time to just curl up on my couch with a real book in my hands. Not that I’m working all the time. It just so happens that whatever spare time I get, I use for other stuff, like spending more time with my family or catching up on rest and sleep. For me, reading books has become a luxury, and it’s a luxury I really could not afford for now. Still, I’m hoping that one day, I will have more than enough time to enjoy the current crop of authors who my friends say are really good. I just can’t wait to get my hands on those books.
In any case, reading books and any kind of reading material I could get my hands on has served me well my entire life. My only problem is that I haven’t done any real reading in the past ten years. Oh sure, I have read all the Harry Potter novels, but that, for me, was just for fun. Although the Harry Potter books were well-written, I never really took them seriously. Books like Sophie’s Choice by William Styron and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller are more up my alley, and I haven’t touched a single book that closely resembles them in scope and prose for the last ten years.
If you ask me, I’d probably blame my very busy working life for this. Then again, I’m a writer, so I’m supposed to do a lot of reading, right? Somehow, however, I just could not find the time to just curl up on my couch with a real book in my hands. Not that I’m working all the time. It just so happens that whatever spare time I get, I use for other stuff, like spending more time with my family or catching up on rest and sleep. For me, reading books has become a luxury, and it’s a luxury I really could not afford for now. Still, I’m hoping that one day, I will have more than enough time to enjoy the current crop of authors who my friends say are really good. I just can’t wait to get my hands on those books.
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