If I Could Read All The Books in the World...

I used to impersonate Reading Rainbow when I was a kid...I would sit in front of the mirror and do book reports of the most recent chapter book I read. I was so proud! Reading was so much fun and I loved Lavar Burton and that fun show on PBS...all about reading!!

In about 2000, I challenged myself, since I was no longer in academia, to read. Read as much as school would charge you to read.

It didn't work. I read...but not near enough. I always feel I'm not reading enough. (Perfectionism much?!?)

But...what did work is I have kept a detailed log of the books I've read since 2000...And, I love doing it. I love looking back on my log and seeing all the stories that have thrilled me for a near decade!!


Now, I have a new venue for writing my book reports...
(it should also be noted that since our move in April, I can't find the most awesome journal I had been using for this endeavor! and it feels really awkward to finish a book and NOT write about it...)

So, I start:

Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year
by
Anne Lamott


Mind Blowing. If I owned this copy it would highlighted and dog-eared. Instead, I have to return it to Leta in quality condition...So, my journal is filled with quotes and my mind hearing Ms. Lamott's wisdom. Exceptional writing--really reads as a journal...the Prologue her complete uncertainty and confusion if having a baby is 'right' but she is told as well as once can by God that this baby is hers to have. I love Lamott's complete devotion and unbelievable struggle to trust God all in the same breath. Knowing what I do now of recovery and possibility and trust in God myself was so reaffirmed by reading this book. Also, even tho' I'm not a mother, doing what I do for work is very very close...I loved her frustration and love...these simultaneous emotions, these god-awful confusing feelings that consume her role as new mother.

I think Lamott is a writer anyone interested in spirituality should read. Her writing is honest and surprising. I specifically love the distaste she has for the First President Bush and how this book was written nearly 20 years ago...yet now, there is such a similar political climate. Powerful reading...motivating to change lives...motivating to be a parent with complete trust in God...trusting in God seems to be the only tool I will consistently need for my own children.

Anne Lamott rules.