Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Day 271, October 2

A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.

George R.R. Martin   (Author of The Game of Thrones)

I can't help myself.  When I run across a good quote about books and reading, I have to share it.  It's an obsession with me (a good one, I hope).

I cannot remember a time when I wasn't reading.  As a young child, when I was supposed to practice the piano (an hour a day, no less), I would prop a Nancy Drew book on the piano and read it while playing a song, over and over, which  I had memorized.  I don't know if my mother knew or not.  If so, she never said anything.

Nancy and I solved crimes and got heart palpitations over Ned Nickerson. We laughed with our good friends Bess and George.  We literally grew up together.  I was Jo in Little Women.  If you remember, Jo was the writer.  In The Scarlet Pimpernel, I was Sir Percy, rescuing French aristocrats from Madame Guillotine. 

Today, I am still reading.   I am a schoolmarm in the American West, teaching in a one room school.   I am a special ops soldier in the Middle East, saving lives and squashing terrorism.  I am a thousand people living a "thousand lives," all through reading.

This I know for sure:  books hold treasures far beyond those of Aladdin's cave.


2 comments:

  1. I'd forgotten that my first heart palpitations were for Ned Nickerson. I remember feeling guilty about that, since it was my grandmother who had given me the books, and I didn't think she would approve of such things.

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  2. I love that you were reading a book while practicing the piano. Now that's what I call multi-tasking.

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