A pledge to read the printed word

I am a bookworm. A binge-reading, library-loving geek. I love books, magazines, cereal boxes, you name it. If it is printed on fibrous material and in front of me, I will read it.

When I read, I am dead to the world and frequently have to be shouted at in order to snap back to reality. One of my earliest memories is looking up from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe after "reading time" in kindergarten* and realizing that while I was lost in Narnia the rest of the class had moved on to an entirely different activity.

My first time in Senegal, re-reading One Hundred Years of Solitude kept me afloat over the occasional chasms of isolation and loneliness.

And I have never, EVER sold back a single book from college. I have lugged, shipped, and driven my books across the country more than once, and I will likely do so many times more. Because books hold a value to me that I can't even fully explain, and selling a book feels like selling a part of my brain. What if I need that later? What if a girlfriend calls with a question about her nether regions and I don't have my copy of Women's Health and Reproduction to help us figure out the difference between herpes, warts, and harmless bumps?**

So I was thrilled when I heard that esb and cevd had launched their project pledging (and encouraging others to pledge) to read the printed word. And I am happy to add their banner to this blog. You can see it right over there on the right, looking all cute and studious.

*I realize it is sort of unbelievable that I was reading this book in kindergarten, and it is fully possible that it was 1st or 2nd grade, but I distinctly remember my kindergarten classroom. Feel free to disbelieve me - I would.

**Sure, the internet could help us with this, but have YOU looked up any STDs on the internet recently? Terrifying. Plus with a textbook you know it's legit...sort of.