Happy International Literacy Day!

I'm a writer. I've been a reader longer than I can remember. I speak 5 languages; in fact I live my life in a language other than my mother tongue.

Words are my life.

I've always been connected to books. I've mentioned more than a few times that I was a bit of a legend for multi-tasking as a child. When they said, "she can't put that book down," they meant it. In primary school, the teachers would make up errands to send me on, so they culd watch me walk and read! (One of them admitted this in a speech at graduation.) And I've never walked into something, or fallen, or even slipped. Even though I regularly walk into stuff, and fall, and slip when I'm not reading.

Somehow, reading makes me hyper-aware of my surroundings. In complete contrast, reading also pulls me in so thoroughly that I notice nothing else. I've been known to read a book cover to cover without eating, drinking or using the bathroom.

There's always a lot going on in my brain- I actually think I have ADD, but that's another post- and reading somehow quiets that. I love movies and music, but I think one of the things I'll always love about curling up with a book, is that it's all inside. I'm not very visual, so when I read, I don't see characters or scenes. It goes much deeper than that. I feel them. That's why it's so hard to keep reading a book when I didn't connect with the characters. I feel them long after the book is closed. In fact, I got so attached to the characters in Elana Johnson's POSSESSION, I couldn't read anything else for days. Every time I tried, Vi and company would intrude.

Another beauty of books is that it's so personal. As I said, I don't see the story, but that's me. Some people do see the characters. Some people smell the smells and tastes the tastes. And that's one of the hard things about movie casting, because so many people have already designed the cast, and the setting, in their minds, that whatever Hollywood does, just doesn't fit. Because, the movie looks mostly the same to everyone, but a book is what you make it.

I know this post is rambling, but it's like me love for books: all over the place, touching everthing.

Enjoy your literacy! Hug a book today!