Bad Lynn

Yes, I've been badly behind in documenting my adventures in Chicagoland, but I do have a couple of entries that I wrote some time back and need to add.  It's not that the adventure is less so, or that I've become bored with either Chicago or writing, but I've been bad.  For a long time - at least a couple of years, I've not been able to read.  I've pretty much always had a book going, usually switching from an "easy" read to something requiring more thought and concentration.  For some time, however, I've not been able to get into a book, or to finish one, which is unlike me.  Even if I didn't particularly enjoy a book, I would finish it because not doing so seemed disrespectful of the author's effort.

A couple of months ago, a co-worker told me she was reading a series that a friend had recommended, and she felt almost silly about doing it because the books were marketed as "young adult", meaning teenagers.  But, she said, the books were so good she couldn't put them down, and was now on the third and last of the series.  I ran across the first one in Target one day, and thought why not give it a try?  I was immediately hooked, and continued to finish that one and buy the 2nd.  By the time I was into the 2nd book, I heard about the movie.  Hugely anticipated by the world of "hunger games" enthusiasts, a movie on the first book was imminent.  Yep, I was reading the hunger games series, and deeply engrossed by the story and the writing.

I've never read a "young adult" series of books; never tried Harry Potter, though I've seen all the movies, or the vampire-werewolf series that also became movies, though I did see the first installment of that.  There seems to be a huge market for books geared toward teen angst and adventure, which I think is great as it encourages reading, and forming the habit of reading.  With the advent of video everything, I feared reading was going the way of big gas-guzzling, steel-bodied vehicles.  But just like monster SUV's have maintained a fan base, reading is still alive and well among all age groups, even if it might be via a tablet, which is not a paper tablet but an electronic one.

I have an ipad, and I have books on it, mostly for convenience of transport (on the train, or plane), but there is still something satisfying about holding bound paper pages and flipping eagerly through them as you sink yourself into the fantasy world of whatever you happen to be reading.  There's something about a library; a bookshelf filled with various sizes and titles and to say "I've read them all".  I'm glad reading is still going strong, but something inside me dies a little each time I see a kindle, or nook, or even when I pick up my ipad and tap to turn the page.  I truly hope that "real" books never become completely passe', and that the futuristic films showing people reminiscing about the time when books were on something called paper never really happens.  But if it does, at least reading will not be something that goes the way of 8-track tapes.

I'm glad that I've been able to rediscover the joy of a good book, even if it does take time away from my little blog, or the quilt I started, or many other things I had been doing instead of reading.  But without writing, there is no reading, and if I'm really going to someday produce an actual book, or at least, a story, to be published and read by others, I have to practice writing instead of just sinking into someone else's.

Bad Lynn is not really bad, it's just that there are so many fun things to do, and those things take up time that is short to begin with.  Spending Sunday afternoon on the sofa engrossed in a good story is not really bad - it just takes away from things I feel I should be doing, or things I would do if I weren't so darned engrossed in what happens to Katniss and Peeta.  If you don't know them, I highly endorse reading "The Hunger Games" to find out.