One Benefit of All of this Snow? Time to Read!

February 1 --  I have always been a voracious reader but in the last several months, like a smoker who lights his next cigarette with the butt of the one he is just finishing, I have become practically crazed with reading one book after another.  It is one of the only things I do (besides eating cookies and chocolate and drinking coffee and wine:) and doing yoga, that centers me.  I truly love to read and on days like today, one of my favorite ways to escape from reality is to sneak away from the kids and hide with a good book.

This habit of using literature to escape stems from my childhood when I would often hide behind a tree in my parents' backyard with a book, completely ignoring my mother's calls.  In fact, from childhood all the way until I started taking Luke to the library when he was little, I would get so excited every time I went into a public library, I would have to go to the bathroom.  Weird, I know.  But what is even more weird is how that tingling excitement started to go away when the kids came along and going to the library became more about their joy than mine. (Yes I know.  There is an insight about parenting there. Sigh.)

But it's coming back!!  (the excitement part, not the urge to go to the public restrooms at the library.)  Today, I was so despondent with the thought of two days stuck in this house with the kids who are equally bored and crazed from all of these snow days, I worked for a while on the computer and then I quietly snuck away upstairs.  I hid in my room for a few wonderful hours this afternoon and evening (thank you Luke for making dinner!!) and I finished an awesome book, "Unaccustomed Earth" by Jhumpa Lahira, a young Indian writer who also wrote "The Namesake."  It's a collection of short stories which focus on love and relationships and striving to be the best you can be in life despite all of its hardships.  When I read the last few pages I was overwhelmed with awe for this very talented writer.  She just wrapped everything up so beautifully with a dizzying array of emotions -- sadness, horror, joy, love, grief and hope -- a climactic explosion which blows the reader away.  Amazing.

What I also liked about the stories was the cultural insight; it was fascinating to read about the lives of the Indian immigrants in the United States.  I really respect their unbridled passion to learn, to throw themselves into academia so that they can use their intelligence to help others. 

Great book.  A definite high for my day.  That, and of course, Luke's dinner.  (And Riley's bisquits.)