Points, discounts, buy one get one, all the lovely incentives offered by our favorite bookstore or chain aren’t what’s on today’s menu. I’m definitely speaking of bargains, but not the ones we all get at the bookstore. I’m talking about the bargaining and negotiating that I do with myself so I can spend every possible minute I can reading.

I think reading is possibly the one thing I would do all day, every day if I could. Sure there’s other things I like to do, but ultimately it’s all about the reading. Any kind of reading. If I get curious about something I’ll go researching it and reading everything I can about it. Sometimes there’s a character in a movie that will make me go on a tear. I did that when Mel Gibson made BRAVEHEART. I researched William Wallace for a week. You get my drift, there’s not much else I’d rather do than reading.

The one thing I never understood about a characters that reads is the author making the person seem absentminded or dreamy. I don’t think I’m like that. Although I wouldn’t want to poll my family for their opinion. Staying firmly rooted in reality can sometimes be a challenge, especially if I’m identifying with a character and really immersed in a book.

Maybe this sounds crazy. I don’t know. I do know that when life has been a real struggle I think reading is all that stood between me and a total melt down. Having just written a post about all the blessings I have in my life, I can hardly claim here that my life is horrible. Quite the contrary. However, when you have a job, a family and commitments, carving out time for the stuff you really like can be a challenge.

What’s a girl to do but create her very own Reader Rewards? Tell me I’m not the only one who promises myself a reading break with my lunch if I get the bathrooms cleaned before noon on a Saturday. Doesn’t everyone make a list of their errands so that they can end up at the bookstore last, buy a new book and make a stop at Starbucks before heading home? Did you ever call your husband on the way home from work and tell him that you made a deal with yourself that morning, promising yourself that he would fix dinner, feed and bathe the kids because you were reading a really good book and wanted to finish it?

When my kids were small and in grade school, I remember bargaining with myself that if I got dinner made, homework done, kids bathed and in bed by 9 PM I could read for 3 whole hours straight. This pretty much meant things had to run like clockwork. If you’re a Mom you know that clockwork doesn’t factor in very often. However, it did help me stay organized and focused. It’s how I became a list maker as well, now that I think about it. Huh. Reader Rewards were more rewarding than I thought.

Of course, it was also the beginning of my late night reading habits which continue to this day. A good book and a quiet house, a whole new meaning to all-nighter.

After Little League games, soccer practices, or Boy Scouts I would bribe my kids and we’d stop at the used bookstore on the way home. They had kids books and comics in the used bookstore too. Of course, I had to also bargain with them about how much time we’d spend there. This necessitated some pretty darn speedy shopping. Hence, the Search List was born. New or used, the books were on my list. In and out. No fuss. No worries, and no screaming kids. Mostly.

I’m still making bargains with my time for reading. I still like to read more than just about anything else. Like for instance, right now I’d rather be reading THE MADNESS OF LORD IAN MACKENZIE by Jennifer Ashley, but I’m not. I’m here writing. You know why? Well I convinced my husband that he had to fix dinner tonight so I could get this post done and still have time to read.

Reader Rewards. Gotta love ‘em.

This entry was posted by Rosie on Thursday, June 4th, 2009 at 11:27 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.