What are you reading right now? As a motivational speaker who was raised by a school teacher, I believe school is never out for the pro. Translation: I buy a lot of non-fiction books. Even if I intend to buy only one, I end up with at least two since I’m too cheap to pass up Amazon’s free shipping over $25. So what’s my crime?
I’m guilty of feeling jealous pangs as I’m sandwiched on an airplane between individuals reading fiction. Last month it seemed like everyone was biting into one of Suzanne Collin’s Hunger Game Trilogy’s. Last week I sat next to two proper women turning beet red reading E. L. James Fifty Shades of Grey. As they lustfully turned pages, I was marking up pages with my pen and highlighter to be able to return and reference.
Yes I know I’m the only one keeping me locked up and chained to this pattern. I hold the key. I can escape my reality and join another’s as soon as I give myself permission to play. Let’s all give ourselves permission to play! For me it’s time to take a page from my seatmates. Amazon here I come! And with a trilogy, I’m certain to get free shipping.
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Enjoy! Looking forward to the book report.
Oh yes, Colette!! I can SO relate! I think we ARE alike here. As motivational speakers, I believe our job is to continually learn as much as we possibly can about ANYTHING that has ANYTHING to do with what we talk about!!! (I live in constant terror that someone in one my audiences will call me out for being a complete fraud: “Who are YOU??? YOU don’t have a Ph.D!!”) So I try to learn as much as I can. HOWEVER, at least with me, I BUY more books than I actually read. I am so behind. I keep thinking that if I went on a sabbatical to a dessert island for 10 years, I would never run out of things to read – just by bringing what I already own. Sigh. So thank you for the encouragement. I DO want to read that danged 50 Shades of Gray and, by golly, I think I WILL!!!
Reading fiction is one of my favorite things in life. Curling up on the sofa beside a candle, in warm pj’s, and reading a James Patterson novel, is absolutely sublime – and a gift I give to myself often. Right now I’m reading “The Witness” by Nora Roberts and I simply can not put it down!!! Sometimes I feel guilty reading for pure pleasure, but then I remind myself that life is not all work, and I want a healthy balance of must do, and want to do. (There’s the motivational speaker in me coming out). And even while reading fiction seems like a luxury, I think there might be more learning than we know. After all, I’m a writer and a storyteller, and a good way to learn to be a better writer, is to read more. When I read a story, I’m ingesting all the cool ways to turn a phrase, develop characters, twist a plot, and get a point across in a spellbinding way. So, yes, even while I’m running from a Russian mafia boss who’s trying to kill me, I’m learning too. Life is grand.