I've been reading since I was three or four. I remember sitting on the living room floor with Mom learning basic reading skills from a series clipped from the Chicago Tribune. I arrived for Kindergarten reading, and the school system didn't quite know what to do with me.
Tuesday nights were library nights. After dinner we'd pile in the car and make the five minute drive to the library. Whenever one of us became interested in some topic or another, the stack of books we brought home would mostly be about that topic. Build a solar oven? Go to the library. Make hand puppets? Go to the library. Learn about Asia? Go to the library. I know exactly what Mom did when I went back to college after coming out to the family during Christmas break. Yup, go to the library and find everything she could about lesbians and gays.
My first job was as a page at the library. Wherever I've lived one of the first things I've done is to go to the public library and get a library card. That means that even though I don't go to the library every week, I usually have a pile of books by my bed waiting to be read. And I have a pile of books related to Christian Education, Christian Formation, and children so that I can keep up with the current trends for work.
As if that weren't enough, I also have a virtual pile of books loaded onto my Kindle. And a daily newspaper. I usually use the Kindle on the train and when I'm traveling. I even have a copy of Phyllis Tickle's Divine Hours Pocket Edition on it. It really does make traveling easier, since I don't have to lug around three or four books--even paperbacks take up a fair amount of space and weight in luggage.
So many books, so little time.
