Winter is a great time for reading, well any time is a great time for reading, but bookstores are pushing new books and electronic readers in time for the holidays. It is too nasty to go outside but thoughts of curling up in front of a fireplace with a good book should put a smile on your face.
We grew up before television and movies made there way into our homes. Trips to town and to the library were the highlights of the week. I remember going to town on Friday night. I would spend my .25 cents a week allowance on penny candy and came home with stacks of books from the library. I was in heaven. I still haunt bookstores and libraries and it is good to know that reading comes under the category of stimulating the mind, and how great is that! Studies show that you can strengthen your brain power well into old age (and hopefully ward off dementia while you are doing it) if you keep your brain active.
Last summer, while vacationing in a rather remote area (by remote I mean no television and no internet access), I ran out of reading material. I had to resort to scrounging around the cabin for reading material. I was lucky and found some old editions of The Reader’s Digest Condensed books. Remember those? One of them was a 1977 edition and I found a delightful book by Robert Kimmel Smith called “Sadie Shapiro in Miami.” The story made me laugh and I am determined to find the out of print sequels. Sadie is the perfect role model and the kind of little old lady that I want to be when I grow. She was 76 and full of plans, ideas, and down home wisdom or as she put it “it’s not your years, nor the words you say, but how you live your life that matters. Of course it helps if you jog a little.” Picture this. A lone jogger causing a traffic jam as drivers stopped to ogle her in her bright pink sweat suit. Sadie with her methodical, short, choppy stride was oblivious to stares. Train the body, she chanted, as she zipped along at her brisk two miles an hour.
I love books. I love the yellowing pages and the faint smell of ink and glue when I open a new book, but I am enthralled by new fangled gadgets too. If finding all of the books that you want to read in a large print version, or if those books are too heavy for painful hands, think about the new electronic books. I never travel anywhere without a book in my bag but books are often too large and too heavy (not to mention that pulling 5 full size books in your luggage is frowned upon by the airline industry these days). Thanks to electronic books you can carry a zillion books around without needing a chiropractor. Electronic books are light, convenient, and you might even be able to read it in the bathtub without dropping it. With the ability to enlarge text as needed they are a boon to folks whose eyesight isn’t what it used to be, and they hold a whole library worth of books and magazines and articles. You can also order new books immediately no matter where you are.
On that note I am going to encourage you to visit libraries and bookstores everywhere. Browse the deli paperback sections or scrounge around cabins and reintroduce yourself to the world of reading. Have fun, stimulate your brain a little and enjoy curling up in front of the fireplace. Next year I am going to have an electronic book tucked in my bag, how about you?
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