#T'YOUsday: Reading Again

I used to be a reader. When I was quite young I would stay up all night sometimes rather than leave a book. I couldn't leave it sometimes, I was so entrenched in the place and the story. I was Heidi, I was Charlotte Sometimes and I was Jean in A Pony For Jean and its two sequels. Later I was at Flambards and anywhere that Noel Streatfeild went, went I. I have still have all the books to prove it - except Jean. I wonder what happened to Jean?

I stopped reading during my O'level and A'level years. Too much guilt about unfinished homework. Whenever I wanted to read a novel I would be painfully aware that I should be reading schoolwork instead.

Gap year on a kibbutz and I was, in my mind, conquering the stock exchange in NYC with Jeffrey Archer. Then, for a change of scenery and lifestyle I spent a week being Meggie in The Thorn Birds - which made our basic kibbutz conditions seem positively luxurious.

Back to college and guilt years all over again. My social life didn't suffer you understand, just the reading.

Finally, no more exams and I was a reader again. And I was a spinster single teacher, which meant long lazy summer holidays with no hint of routine. Read until you fall asleep, get up to shower and eat and read again until you fall asleep. That was pretty much how I spent my 30s.

And then DD came along and then I gave birth to Midlife Singlemum. Reading couldn't compete with these two demanding babies of mine. I rarely had my bed to myself - either DD or the blog would be taking my attention on any given evening.

My friends mostly bought me books for my big birthday last year. Here they are. I was so excited when they arrived from Amazon. But I never read any of them. Not one. I had got out of the habit of reading. I wasted all my free, me time online.

Some of my birthday presents from last September

After a long cold winter spent huddling together under the duvet, our trip to England, moving out for renovations, and moving back in to chaos - I've finally got us sorted out and firmly established our separate rooms. (Sometimes this still happens but mostly it doesn't.) In the past two weeks, in the sanctuary of my own bedroom, I've returned to reading. I've read four of the books in the photo and used up the remainder of the gift voucher with an order for two more books.

It's good to be back.




This post was written for the T'YOU'sDay linky. Follow the links below for more posts about mothers who make 'me' time. This is a blog hop after all.