Reading Buddy

I love to read.  I'm putting more effort into making time to read lately, because that was one of those things that went out the window when I started having kids and now I want it back.  It's not due to just a lack of time in general, but a lack of uncluttered brain time.  Having small children jumbled my mind up in a way that made reading for pleasure difficult for years.

My kids, until fairly recently, have not been much into reading on their own.  They love to be read to (we are currently in the middle of the second Harry Potter book and they beg for me to keep going at the end of each chapter), and they certainly have plenty of books, but they don't read the way I did as a kid.  Aden did get sucked into the Warrior series (which is some epic drama about cats), and Quinn does go poking through his shelves from time to time, but most of the reading my kids do is at school.

This past weekend I read Divergent because I needed a page turner after having struggled to finish The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan for my book club.  I normally like Amy Tan, but am confused by the good reviews this particular book has gotten.  I can't recommend it, and it took me forever to get through.  Divergent wasn't great, but it was enjoyable, and it was nice to read straight through something in a weekend.

Quinn has been reading The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White.  His teacher is reading it to the class at school, and somehow or other Quinn missed hearing the first few chapters, so he's going back on his own and trying to catch up.  He confessed to me about a week ago that sometimes he stays up late and reads with a flashlight after I've put him to bed.  I told him that was fine.  My kids can stay up as late as they want if they are reading.  (Or cleaning something.)

So this weekend Quinn and I became reading buddies.  On Sunday we wanted to hang out together but we both wanted to read, so we just cuddled up close together on the couch and read our own books.  It was honestly one of the best days of my life.  I had Quinn snuggled up against me on one side and the dog all curled up asleep on the other and we just read.

I asked Quinn if we could make this a regular thing and he looked delighted.  I have a reading buddy.  (Now if I can just find a way to make eating cookies an activity that burns calories while we read life will be beyond perfect.)