Running chores all day long, taking care of your family and working long days, does that sound familiar? Maybe it’s time to give yourself a gift. If you haven’t read a book for pleasure lately, pause and allow yourself the time. You don’t need a summer vacation to read a book. Grab a cup of tea or coffee, curl up, and enjoy some “me” time.
The tales and stories inside the pages can help you relax, lose all sense of time, and immerse yourself in a journey that takes you out of your own life and opens new opportunities, ideas, and universes. Sometimes a book can help you resolve an issue or make the next important step in your life.
You can learn so much from the characters and events inside books (fiction or nonfiction). They will guide you from page to page. The passion that pours from line after line of books help awaken your own emotions and memories.
Books are an easy, inexpensive retreat. They’re safe. Even when the content is high-intensity or dangerous, you can close the pages and continue the journey when you’re ready.
The books you read and those that touch you deeply shape your thinking, your vision for the world around you, and they become part of you.
I like to write and create different worlds and characters, because they help me connect with the inner me and my roots, buried deep inside me. I hope by reading my books, you can find something that will touch you, learn something new, awaken a good memory, make or adopt a new ritual, or research a topic and learn more.
Reading is “mindfulness,” because it requires an investment of time and emotion, as well as concentration and imagination. Readers need to be “present” and in constant contact with the characters of the book, their emotions.
For me, reading is an excuse to eat a lot of chocolate.
Here are some of my favorite quotes about books:
“Books are the ultimate Dumpees: put them down and they’ll wait for you forever; pay attention to them and they always love you back.”
― John Green, An Abundance of Katherines
“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”
― Charles W. Eliot
“Books are a uniquely portable magic.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Happy reading! Make your own ritual, travel to unknown worlds, and build your own mental retreat. You deserve it.
Connections eMagazine runs an annual Reader’s Choice Awards. You can find this year’s entries here: https://melaniepsmith.com/current-contest/?contest=gallery Voting is ongoing until July 19. You can vote once per day, as many books as you like. Feel free to check them out and vote, or simply look for your next favorite book.
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