The gift of reading

What is it that makes some people crave ghost stories, or science fiction, or adventure, while others want "everyday" drama?

Reading is such an important part of my life that I feel an irrepressible need to share it.  I cannot imagine a world without books.  Not just for research, but to give me a peek into how other people think, to take me into the imaginations and worlds of those I admire, or have never met.  Books set me free to explore unimaginable things even if I lack the money, way, or courage to do it otherwise.

For years I tried to take my sister along on these excursions with no success at all.  She preferred women's magazines to books, short "Chicken soup" stories to books, simply sitting in the sun to books!   I was mystified . . . and worried about my sister who never turns her TV off, who even leaves it on for her dogs when she goes away.

The terrifying thought that someone might turn off the television, or the world might fall off the grid was always mitigated, for me, by the knowledge that I had a world of books at my fingertips.  I will  never be stranded on a desert island bereft of ideas that are not my own as long as there are books.

But what about my sister?  I envisioned her sitting on that island reading outdated magazines to her dogs forever more.

Then one day someone gave me the gift of a book I would never, otherwise, have read.  I enjoyed it, but felt no compulsion to keep it, so, on a whim, I handed it over to my sister along with a brief description.  She loved it!  In fact, she has since read every book that author has written!

Once again I was mystified.  I asked her, "What is it that you love about those books?"

And she said, "They are about everyday life."

Imagine that!