Reading A Book With Wild Abandon

First off I will tell you that Wild Abandon is not my hippie cousin who I haven't seen since the 60s.  It is the term "wild abandon" that I am using in it's dictionary form which is to do something "in a completely uncontrolled way."  The possibility of succumbing to wild abandon is most often the reason why I avoid reading a good book.  It is difficult for me to enjoy a good book a little bit at a time in the same way it was & still is difficult for me to have just a few flying saucers from the box & then put the rest away for another time.

I know the box pictured above indicates that they are called Satellite Wafers, but to us kids who snuck away from St. Edward school in Blawnox, PA during recess times, lunch times, in all kinds of weather & made our way down the hill & across the street to Mrs. Sullivan's neighborhood store in order to spend our allowance money & lunch money on them, they were & will always be known as flying saucers ... but I digress. What was I talking about?  Oh yeah ... a good book.  

There are some books I can read over & over & over again & never get tired of them. Miss Read books are a good example.  I can almost recite the words by heart as I'm reading the stories but I am still enthralled by each & every one of them.  

There are some books I remember getting via the Scholastic Book Club promotion while attending St. Ed's, the name by which us kids referred to that fine institution.  All the books that I purchased from the club ... or actually my mother purchased for me ... were passed along to younger family members as time went along.  Some of them I really enjoyed & a few of them I remember to this day.  One was called The Middle Sister.  I don't remember anything at all about the story but I remember the cover perfectly. Another story I can't recall but I clearly remember the cover of the book was Sara Crewe.  One book that I remember very clearly, both cover & the story itself, was Mary Jane. Mary Jane was a black girl who was going to be entering the 7th grade in the fall.  The story was set during the time when segregation was beginning to be challenged & Mary Jane & her neighbor Fred made the decision to attend a previously all-white school near their homes.  It was a wonderfully written story which I read over & over & over again.  I remember that Mary Jane's mother took her shopping for school clothes & one of the things she bought was a straight skirt in gray wool.  It just so happened that I was going to be entering the 7th grade that next fall & when the time came to go clothes shopping I insisted on a straight skirt in gray wool.  Looks like I was easily influenced even back then   : )   I am happy to say that I did find this book in a used book store many, many years ago & grabbed it as though I was rescuing an old friend from drowning.  It's upstairs ... in a moving box ... underneath heaven only knows how many other boxes & stuck in the very back of a closet.  If I ever venture to empty that closet before we sell this house then I will have to dig it out & reunite with my old friend Mary Jane.  I found this photo of the book online.

Another book I loved & read just as much as Mary Jane was called The Charmed Circle. It was a hardback book so I know it wasn't purchased from the Scholastic Book Club. Wherever it came from, I identified in some respects with the main character who was a shy 14-year-old entering her first year of high school.  I remember the summer before I entered my first year of high school ... lying on the back porch with a tall glass of ice water & a box of saltine crackers reading this book from beginning to end & then immediately returning to the first page & beginning to read it again.  And I wonder why I grew up to look like the side of a barn! Here is an online photo of this book.

Anyway, I love reading a good book but I don't often give in to the desire to do so because life will stop until I reach the end. This is not a good thing if I also want to cross stitch something, knit something, cook/eat dinner, or engage in activities like washing my hair, brushing my teeth & taking a shower.  (Okay, I do engage in those last 3 activities without fail but the others will most certainly not take place.)  I know that on several blogs I follow the blog owners indicate they love to engage in reading as well as crafting.  I've always wondered how in the world they do this.  Apparently they are able to tear themselves away from a good story without a problem.  My proverbial hat is off to them.

It was with some trepidation that I purchased & began to read a new book a week or so ago.  It's a book that kind of centers around the world of knitting, written by an author who has written several books before using this same type of format.  

It's really like you're reading a book of blog entries.  I decided I would not have a problem with being able to put the book down after reading a blog type entry or two since the book in itself isn't an actual story.  I am about half way through the book & sure enough I can read a blog entry or two & then easily put it down & move on to something else.  Still, in the back of my mind while I'm reading I'm thinking "I should be cross stitching now" or "I should be working on my knitting."  

The moral of this blog post is this:  There's not enough time to do everything I want to do.  Perhaps when I get to heaven God will have a nice comfy chaise lounge waiting for me on my back porch along with a big glass of ice water that constantly replenishes itself, a never-ending supply of saltines (maybe even a never-ending supply of flying saucers!), & lots of good books & cross stitch supplies & knitting supplies & more, & He will say to me "Have fun Shirlee!  Eternity is forever!"  I look forward to that   : )