Friday, October 21, 2016

BLING YOUR THING: Falling in Love, AGAIN

Are there any book addicts in the house? *raises hand*

Yay! You're in good company. (The cheesy kind.) *breaks out the popcorn and kindle* 

When did you fall in love with books? It happened to me when I was in third grade. A classmate read a story to the whole class that won my heart and imagination. The reader became my hero. The book became my FAVORITE. 



From that day on, the scholastic order form was my best friend, the library was my happy place, and book fairs left me drooling. I'd stockpile books all year so that when summer hit, I had a stack of 8 to 10 to start. As soon as those were done, I'd beg for a trip to the library.

Here's where the story gets sad. Somewhere in high school I lost the drive to read independently. (About the same time I hit the pause button on writing.) Maybe it was the amount of school work. Maybe the number of required reading books. Don't know, but I missed my books.

It wasn't until I'd been a mom for about eight years that I gave myself permission to pick up anything other than a picture book. Going to the library almost made me feel guilty. All those pretties. Was it really okay to pick one up and *gasp* open it? What about the time I should be devoting to my kids, my house, other responsibilities?


All it took was one book. The love had never disappeared, it had just been suppressed. The written page swallowed me whole and I began reading one book a month, then two, then five, then eight or nine. They fit in cracks of time--waiting in the car, while exercising, while brushing teeth, while sitting a stoplights.

We have the power to fall in or out of love with anything in our lives. It's all a question of which appetite we choose to fill. Let us be wise--both to ourselves and life--with which addictions we decide to feed.

When did your love of books start?


Crystal Collier is a cheese-loving blogger & author who pens out funnies, deep thoughts, and book giveaways. She's the author of the Maiden of Time series, a 2012 winner of PitchWars, and a 2016 IWSG writing contest winner. She has lived from coast to coast and now calls Florida home with her creative husband, four littles, and “friend” (a.k.a. the zombie locked in her closet). Secretly, she dreams of world domination and a bottomless supply of cheese.

The third book in her Maiden of Time series releases November 1, 2016. Find her and her books online.

11 comments:

  1. I have no idea when I became a reader, but I don't remember not reading. My parents were both readers so I guess it just rubbed off.

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  2. It's fun to learn more about you, Crystal! I suspected you were a long time lover of books. :) Well, and cheese too. I'm much the same - began reading books early on (with an initial push from my schoolteacher mom) and have loved them ever since. Had to laugh, I felt the same way back then about book orders and book fairs, and also when I began reading more after my kids came along. :)

    Thanks to the lovely RRH hostesses for hosting Crystal. Happy weekend!

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  3. Rumor has it that I came out of the womb with a book in one hand and a flashlight in the other. (It's DARK in there!)

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  4. I'm glad you were able to get back to reading! I've always had a thing about it, but it never really took off as big as it did till the Babysitter's Club in middle school.

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    1. I know people love those books, but I was totally into helpful ghost stories at that age.

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  5. I remember loving book before I could read the words. I was committed to learning...though I was a very slow young student.

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    1. Some things come easier than others, eh? Still, I'm sure you were better than you think. The filters we see childhood through are often so jaded.

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