125/365 If you really knew me PTIV

I have always been a voracious reader. One time in the 5th grade we had a read a thon. People could either make a flat donation or they could pledge a specific amount per book. The read a thon was for one school quarter. My dad - such a dear man - pledged something stupid like $5 dollars a book - I read 17 books. He is now a believer in the flat donation. Truly it is his fault, when I was way to young to read Steven King's The Stand, I found it on our bookshelf. My dad said I would never get through it - so I did. Then he was reading Michener (the guy who can spend 19 pages describing one stone or pebble), and he said I would get bored - I didn't. Thanks Dad for giving me the gift of reading.

If you really knew me you would know that there has only been one book I have never been able to finish (and am still trying), that even if a book is horrible (see previous note) that I will force my way through it, that I can easily blow through a 600 hundred page book in a weekend, that I have read all but 2 books on the Oprah book list.

If you really really knew me you would know that despite my techie proclivities that I have been resistant to eReaders until my iPad, that I have read some books that moved me so much or I enjoyed the characters so much that I was sad when the books were over, and that I think reading is so important that the best thing I have ever done (reading wise) is the read to rover program with my CCI breeder.

If you really really really knew me you would know I savor the last chapter of a book and generally read it aloud, preferably by myself; that books have changed the way I think, made me want to visit different places, and exposed me to points of view that I would never have known otherwise.

If you really really really really knew me you would know that I love old cookbooks - especially when I find one that the owner has written notes or scratched things out in it, and you would know the books that I have enjoyed and/or meant  the most to me: Atlas Shrugged:Ayn Ryand, The Posionwood Bible:Barbara Kingsolver, The Shell Seekers:Rosamund Pilcher, and Harvesting the Heart:Jodi Picoult and Catch-22:Joseph Heller - I have read them all several times.

Unfortunately my mind is now racing and full of other titles I have loved - there is just not the space here to do them all justice.