Finding Me One Book at a Time

I have always loved to read.  I love to read more than most other things.  I would actually choose reading over practically anything else in the world.  Reading brightens your soul and opens your mind.

I have already read three novels, this year, just for the fun of it.  I have also been reading for school.  I am on my second novel of the year for that as well.

Literature allows me to escape from my world.  It gives me the opportunity to explore other places, cultures, and times.  Mostly it allows me to turn off my brain to the outside world and the endless details in my mind.

Reading helps me remain calm.  I am in control of who I am and the world around me, as I read.

Escaping My World

Some days feel an eternity long.  Some mornings appear to pass in the blink of an eye.  This morning I arrived to work about the same time as always.  I began to prep for class and the next thing I realized it was almost time for my first group of students to walk in and I was no where near ready for them.

I don't know how some days seem to drag on forever while others pass in a moment.  The things I find most disconcerting is when the day begins in a whirlwind and then slows down a couple hours later, to pass at the slowest rate possible.  The mysteries of time will probably forever vex my mind.

Yet while I am dwelling and seemingly inconsistency of the time space continuum, I am left to day dream about escaping the worlds that being me warmth and comfort.  I long to sit and absorb myself in another's problems and issues.  I want to escape that which is around me always and delve into the unknown.

Is there a way I could simply stay home and read books all day every day?  Will somebody pay me to do this?  or really simply pay my student loans while I read?  Either way I desire to escape the mundane and live in a world of fiction.

Books of 2015

I read a lot.  I have to re-read a lot for my job though.  In 2015 I read 17 novels.  Some were for school and required annotating (marked with an *).

Here is the list of books I read during the course of 2015:

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain*
• Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad*
• Night Circus Erin Morgenstern
• Go Set a Watchman Harper Lee
• Storyteller Jodi Picoult
• Lone Wolf Jodi Picoult
• The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien*
• Still Alice Lisa Genova
• Wild Cheryl Strayed
• Why Not Me Mindy Kaling
• Nectar in a Sieve Kamala Markandaya
• Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe*
• Humans of New York: Stories Brandon Stanton
• The Shack Wm. Paul Young
• Farewell My Concubine​ Lillian Lee
• Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte*
• a nervous wreck faking fine​ Dakota Wint

The annotated novels took much longer to read than the others.  Although this is the case,  hands down Jane Eyre is the best novel I have ever read.  I love it.  I love everything about it.  I am literally obsessed.  I am currently teaching this masterpiece in my senior English classes.  I get to relive the wonder countless times.  

I am already a good way through my first 2016 novel, Little Bee Chris Cleave.  I am captivated.  Although the beginning of this year has been particularly rocky, I at least have the love of literature to maintain my sanity.