Reading - Chris Callaghan

I have fifteen bookcases in my house and every single one is stuffed with books. Also every other flat surface has at least a few books on it, some have stacks.

Every couple of years I pull the books off the bookcase shelves and try to get organized, alphabetically, by author. For a month or two it stays tidy but then I keep buying books at thrift stores and garage sales and jamming the ones I can’t bear to part with horizontally onto the shelves.

I don’t just love reading, I’m addicted.

I learned to read before I started kindergarten, egged on by my mother who, although she couldn’t give me her love, gave me her love of books. I will forever be thankful for those weekly trips to the library. The kind librarian introduced me to the children’s section where I discovered that sticking my head in a book and reading gave me unlimited access to lives much better than the one I was stuck in.

Of course reading led me naturally to writing. The old “I could do that” syndrome popped up in me when I read my first Dr. Suess book. So I did, I think I was ten or maybe eight.

I started keeping a journal when I was twelve and haven’t been able to put my pen down since. Thank God.

Reading has gotten me through many a tough time in my life, and writing is still the cheapest therapy I know of. For me, they go together like cookies and milk. I never go anywhere without a book and something to write on.

For years I believed that this love of reading was a common human denominator, but alas it just ain’t so. Now I ask every new person I meet, “Do you read?” with a maniacal gleam in my eye and the fantasy in my mind that if I can just give them the right book they’ll be hooked. Sometimes I succeed. I had a 35 year old sailor friend once who told me he had never read a book all the way through, never. So I went on a mission to find him a book that would keep his interest. I gave him ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ which he finished even though it took him six months. I was so thrilled for him; I gave him the other two books of that trilogy.

I can’t imagine existing without reading. Books are my friends, teachers, travel guides, and treasure. Sometimes I just sit in front of the bookcases and look at all my wealth. Sometimes I look at the titles on the spines and plan a trip, where will I go today?

Right now I have to go to the thrift store. Why? Because I need more books.