Comparing Dimes to Cocktails

I try not to get my coins mixed up with priorities. Reading doesn’t cost a dime, one reason it tickles me coming across bookish posts lamenting about readers stacking more books on top of already sky mile-high piles of unread/half-read books.

Trust me, I would seriously question my entertainment habits if I kept buying…let’s say… seasons tickets to the same ball games but never attended one game… or hadn’t once been inside Madison Square Garden… or didn’t know ...let's say... a Knicks jersey from a Cowboys’ cheerleader boot… or never, in fact, even watched a ball game…on TV, live, or in any other frame. In other words, I might get to scratching my own head if I collected books for mysterious reasons.

But see, reading is different. Each book a different story. Another opportunity to bump up our spirit, or increase our awareness, helping us to become more active as opposed to reactive. It’s common for avid readers to buy a book and set it aside to read later, amassing collections in numbers that might have espiers asking what the heck!?!

We open and close and set aside books not sinking (or syncing) in all the time. It’s like watching TV and changing channels to stop on oops…another rerun, or unt un…looks boring, or click…ain’t no way I’m sitting here for 3 hours watching one show, or damn…more drama, or ouch…another spirit killer, or yawn…a 400 year-old yarn still showing in black & white, or you keep the list going.

One difference between reading books and other types of entertainment such as watching TV, is we have control of our channel line up. Our line up even beats on-Demand channel line-ups. We have full access to surf at leisure more entertainment than any one industry could ever dream up.

And get this… books are not perishable, so there’s no having to consume one of these books in our collection before an expiration date.

Whether we enjoy reading socially…as in belonging to a book club, or alone…curled up in our favorite private space, the basic faculty of reading is a quiet activity that allows us time to open our ears, really listen, and think.

My priority however, is sharing titles of books that are as much food for the mind as good for the soul. Browse many of my FAVORITES and books added to my TO-READ LIST.