January 26, 2010

A Nation of Readers

That's how my dad once described the British. They read everyday: a book, a newspaper.
My parents were both heavy readers (one of them British!), my brother was too(also British). My grandmother, who's native tongue is Arabic and learned French in school and who didn't learn English until she moved to the US as adult still reads a Danielle Steele book everyday.

I am not a strong reader.

Over the holidays I saw that most of my adult family are everyday readers, some read more than they watch TV!
My wife loves reading, she reads for fun; fiction & non-fiction and is grumpy when she can't. This past summer I got excited over World War Z and read it as fast as I could, it took me 4 days. My wife had never seen me that excited over a book. Kevin finished it in a night.
How did I become such an undedicated reader? It looks like I have always been surrounded by them, encouraged, shown that it was cool, etc.
I just finished reading His Dark Materials. It's a trilogy, they made a movie of The Golden Compass. It's like 900 pages and it took me 6 months to read. That's two months per book, about four times longer than most people. I'm trying very hard to become a strong reader, it's a habit I want my children to have and they're more likely to learn pick it up if they see me doing it.
I try to be my best.

January 25, 2010

Closed

4 weeks removed from the islands. It was warm, it was beautiful and natural. My friends that I miss dearly. I ate food that made sense and came from the backyard. I leave behind slow Internet, expensive food and a wonderful job.

I took away a great deal more than I left. I never knew life could be so great.
Much mahalos.