January 17, 2012
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I Read Too Much
When people talk about what career path they wish they had taken I usually say, "I wish I had been a librarian." I worked in libraries in college and law school. I have always loved libraries and even served on the library board in a small town.
But the job I really wish I had? I wish I were a reader for a publisher so my JOB would be to read books. I can't imagine anything better.
My favorite authors are frequently those who write thick books because I need a lot of words. I read quickly and I need the book to last until my next trip to the library, until the end of my vacation/flight/etc. I love my Kindle for a lot of reasons, but my favorite thing about it is that I can buy a new book if I am sitting in the van outside football practice and just finished the last one. I have bought new books while riding as a passenger going down the interstate, while laying on the beach at a lake, while at an airport and in the evening when I am shuttling kids and supervising homework and would not have had time to go to the library or bookstore. I don't have to stress over making sure that I have enough words. I can always get more instantly.
Some stupid shit happened at my house this weekend and I have some explaining to do this evening at a parent meeting for one of my son's activities. I was pretty horrified when I got the call yesterday about my son bringing his bb gun out to show his friends and then the resulting wrestling match involving said gun. Sigh. But one thing that literature has given me is perspective. Kids do lots of really horrible things and grown ups do lots of horrible things and we will all survive this. There are moms who are going to think I am a horrible, neglectful mother, but they don't know the other shit going on in my life right now and I can only hope that nothing bad ever happens at their house because this feeling of being a bad mom is really horrible. But, literature (and history) reminds us that there are far worse mothers. Thank you, literature. I was upstairs reading (devouring?) 11/22/63 and giggling about Stephen King's description of Lee Harvey Oswald's mother when this all happened at my house.
What is the due date for this copy of perspective?
Comments (4)
I'm on the waiting list for perspective. There are 53 people ahead of me.
And you're ahead of me.
BettyC, It's my dream to work in a library or bookstore...actually, my real dream is to own a used bookstore...but...you know...dreams...
My son has a very real-looking BB pistol. Oy, I hate that thing. It never leaves the house or sees the light of day unless dad is here to supervise. But last weekend my son went to a sleepover where the boys decided to go out AT NIGHT, without knowledge of the supervising parents, and shoot pellet guns...without any kind of eye protection, of course. Everything turned out o.k. and the parents figured it out & put a stop to it. But my son explained how he used his knit cap pulled half-way over his eyes as protection. Gah. I mean, at least the thought of protecting his eyeballs occurred to him! But 5 boys shooting in the *dark* with eyes *halfway* covered does not satisfy me!
Something happens to the brain cells in those 13-14yo boys.
oh, it could, it could get lodged under the skin and cause a VERY nasty infection!
--clark w. griswold, who loved his family enough to shoot someone in the ass with a BB gun.
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