Reading For the Fun of It

If given a choice, which would you rather do: sit down and read a good book or sit down and watch a TV show? I’m not going to say that the book is a national bestseller and the TV show is one of the worst there is, or that the TV show is the top rated show and the book was found in the take-me-I’m-free pile. Let’s just say that both the book and the TV show are excellent. Which would you rather do?

I go to the library every four weeks and check out a book or two, depending on how long they are. For the most part, I finish both of them before they are due back, though I have had to renew one of them a couple of times. I guess you could say I like to read. I read books, a magazine, other blogs and some online news. I love to find a book by someone I never heard of that sounds interesting and then find out I can barely put it down. It’s even better when I get another book by that author and find out they weren’t a one shot deal.

Part of the reason I’m bringing this up is because in a discussion at work a few people thought it was it was weird that I read books…from the library! I know that many people use electronic readers; my wife has a Kindle Fire and she absolutely loves it. She loves being able to have a virtual pile of books in one small place. I don’t know if I’d like it or not, I haven’t tried one yet. However, the point is that a few of the people thought it was strange that I read books for entertainment or fun, and not for a class I’m taking. It seems that a lot of people just don’t read books anymore, whether they are physical or virtual. To me, that is sad.

When I was a kid, I would go to the library with my Mom regularly. While she was browsing for books in the upstairs section for grownups, I was allowed to look for two books in the kids’ section. I don’t know if Mom made me do this, but I usually got one sports related book and one regular book. It was thrilling to me to pick out a couple of books and then take them home and read them. Books were an escape for me. When I read about a great football player like Jim Brown or a one-armed baseball player who made it to the major leagues, I was there on that field seeing it all happen. It also made me think that maybe someday I could be a professional athlete instead of just a regular guy. If not, then maybe I could write about sports, whether it was for a newspaper, magazine or books.

The non-sports books were also great for me. I read about the Civil War, cowboys, astronauts, inventors and people who overcame huge odds to do something important or great. Sometimes I thought that if those people could do something cool or great, then I could, too. It not only stirred my imagination, it helped it to grow. It got me thinking and wondering and exploring. For the most part, TV just doesn’t do that any more. Many of the shows are dumbed down or predictable, with no imagination necessary.

Reading has been a life long practice for me. I may need glasses to see the words these days, but I still like to read the printed word. Words, and your own imagination, can take you places a TV show can’t. I guess you know what I’d rather do.     

I'm Bored

I’m bored. I’m sitting at work with nothing to do and nowhere to go. I test software for a living and I usually have very busy days, but I’m in a bit of a lull today. I’ve done everything I could possibly do on the last version of the software and am waiting for the next version so I can move on to new features. The day is kind of crawling along. I figured I’d break the monotony by going for a walk, but as I opened the door to go outside I realized it was raining. This got me thinking about two things: how I used to go out in every kind of weather (and didn’t melt) and how I was never really bored as a kid.

Growing up in Massachusetts you went outside and did stuff regardless of the weather. If we only went out in good weather, we would have been outside in May, June, part of July, September and October. That’s it! We get about 5 months of good weather and 2 months of OK weather; the rest of the year is either really cold or really hot and humid. That’s what I think now; when I was a kid, it didn’t matter. We played all the major sports (baseball, football, hockey, basketball), we played all kinds of games (wiffle ball, hide and seek, tag), we rode bikes, we explored the woods, and we went sledding in the winter and had snowball fights. We even made up our own games, but that’s another story for another day. Cold didn’t stop us, nor did heat. And when it rained, we begged to go play in it, especially in the summer! I’m sure we weren’t the only kids who had Popsicle stick races in the “river” in the gutter before everyone on board plunged to their deaths in the storm drain.

Not that you could always go outside and play. We certainly had our days cooped up inside. But we found things to do. Me and my brothers and sisters played cards (Rummy and Crazy Eights were favorites), we played games (Monopoly, Clue, Skittle Bowl), we drew pictures, we read books and comic books, we even watched a little TV - although back then there was only about 7 stations, so there wasn’t much on. We even made up our own games, but again, that’s another story for another day. Bored? Hardly.

So when I find myself being bored these days, it kind of freaks me out. I know there are things I could do if I really wanted to, or if I wasn’t being so…oh no…lazy. And that’s it, isn’t it? When we’re bored it nobody’s fault but our own. Instead of doing something fun or constructive on our own, we’re waiting for someone or something else to entertain us. That’s about as likely to happen as a breezy, 70 degree day in August in Massachusetts. Being bored, or not, is in my control. It’s a choice I need to make.

As I look out the window, I see it’s actually raining a little harder than before. I guess the walk is still out. Now if I could only find some Popsicle sticks.