Reading

Photo by Olga Tutunaru on Unsplash

I’ve loved reading for as long as I can remember. I remember reading to my younger siblings, my older siblings reading to us. My mother sitting in the hall in-between our bedrooms reading to us…

I remember how our elementary school back in the United States really encouraged reading. We had a reading tree with different colored leaves depending on how many minutes you read. I remember we also got stars on our Pizza Hut Pins (a pizza restaurant) If you got enough starts you got a free pizza. I honestly don’t remember what you got when you read the most minutes. I remember that it was a big deal to have the principle call your name during assembly and give you your leaf to hand to the custodian who would pin it to this massive tree on the wall of the gym. My two older siblings and a friend in my class were always competing for most minutes read.

It was really helpful that at home we all loved to read. Going to the library or the bookstore was our favorite thing. I remember we would read whatever we could get our hands on. We were lucky the library had a book-mobile park up the street every two weeks in the US. When we moved back to Saudi Arabia, we lived within walking distance to a library. I’ve read so many books I could never name them all. My best friend and her family were also avid readers and we used to lend each other books. I remember when Harry Potter came out, it came out in the US before Saudi Arabia. My friend had siblings in the US so they would send them the books then the entire house would read them, then the books were given to me to read and pass on to my siblings.

When I was in college I read “Under the Tuscan Sun” by Frances Mayes. It took me to Italy with her. I was seeing, smelling hearing and tasting everything with her. It made me love Italy even more than I already did while studying about architecture and landscaping. I’ve already bought all of her books related to her life in Italy and have enjoyed every single one! When I had that -aha- moment and realized I had only been reading self-improvement and parenting books, I searched for new books to read, I discovered new authors who had similar experiences to Frances Mayes. I ordered all the books I could find and finally started reading again. I don’t know when I stopped reading. I think it was the period when i had two miscarriages and then became pregnant with my youngest. I couldn’t focus.

I’ve made several attempts to start reading again and I’m happy that I seem to be on the right track. I just finished my first book for 2023: Attachments By: Rainbow Rowell. I enjoyed it. It’s funny with a cute romance story without it being a romance story you know? I’ve set a goal for myself to read 12 books throughout 2023. I finished two more books while I was sick; “Holding Up the Universe” by; Jennifer Niven & “Wonder” By R.J. Palacio. I think I’m off to a good start.

My kids all read but at different levels. My oldest is the biggest reader of them all. I started reading to him at a very young age. I had so many children’s classics and would read to him before he went to bed. I continued to read to my kids as they grew older, on and off depending on what was going on in our lives. The book that got my oldest hooked on reading was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I had started reading it to them before bed time and he didn’t have the patience to wait for me to read it them so he read it himself, he read almost all of Roald Dahl’s books and that was the beginning. I confess that we read in English and despite my efforts to get my kids (and myself) to read in Arabic I haven’t been successful. I guess for me, English sort of was my first language and I find it easier to read and I guess I’m, just used to it. I will post a list of my favorite children’s and adult books. I will post the new books I’ve read on Instagram and Pinterest as I finish them.

I also added a page of My Favorite Things if you are interested.

Reading is part of the balance I’m working on for this year.