A Different Side

While a fair amount of how I define myself these days comes from yarn and knitting, there's a piece of my life that's always revolved around books and reading. I have fond memories of going to the bookmobile over summer vacation and checking out as many books as they'd let me, devouring them and waiting anxiously for its next visit. I can still lose the day as readily in a bookstore as a yarn store.

I'm a little quirky about my reading. I always read the last page of a book first. Even if it's only one word. I don't know why. I do know it isn't because I want to find out what happens early. And as crazy as it might sound, it rarely ruins the ending for me. I do it pretty regularly with magazines too. So often the last page is something self contained and fun.

I also read the acknowledgment page and sometimes the notes. I've even been known to take a peek at the copyright page to see when the work was published or what printing it's in.

I like the way books smell. I used to work in college textbook publishing and my job was to try and talk professors into using my company's book for their classes. Some of them had incredible libraries and I got to see some remarkable volumes over the years. It raised a few eyebrows when I'd sniff at the books when I opened them. I guess I still do that with wool.

As far as I'm concerned the jury is still out about e-readers. I have an iPad and have read a few books that way but I'm pretty ambivalent about it. All things being equal, my vote would probably still come down on the side of the printed volume.

I can categorically say that I prefer a printed magazine to a virtual one. I like their size and turning the pages. I still cut things out and put them in folders, even in the era of Pinterest. I'm pretty new to the Pinterest and am loving it, but I still like a magazine.

I start and finish every day reading. I can't fall asleep without reading at least a few pages and I like easing my way into the day in the same fashion.

Well, that wasn't the post I set out to write today. I was going to do a book review and got sidetracked along the way. I'll tell you more about it next time.