Reading is Bliss

The first four years that Del Sol (the high school I work at) was opened, we had what we called D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything And Read). It's what we used to know as SSR (Sustained Silent Reading). Basically for 20 minutes a day, everyone on campus would, well, drop everything and read.

I loved it. I read an average of 4 novels a school-year only during the 20-minute DEAR periods (let alone any time I spent reading at home).

But this year the school canceled the program (followed by much cheering on the students' part). Since then, I haven't read much. Come to find out that most of my reading over the past 4 years was done during DEAR.

Thankfully, Christmas has reinvigorated my reading itch. I got a couple of good books for Christmas and now I can't do anything but read. Quickly I finished the book I had been slowly working on for about 6 months (Empire, By Orson Scott Card), and straight away picked up my newest book (The Good Guy, by Dean Koontz). Granted, I'm not working right now (winter break) so I have a bit of extra time on my hands, but I've really enjoyed my reading time. I'm half way through this new book and I started it 2 days ago (that's fast for me).

One last thought: Every now and then someone will ask what your happiest memory was, your best vacation, or maybe a time when you were most relaxed. More often than not my answer to these questions (other than my wedding day, birth of children, etc, etc) is when I had a free day in Fiji. I lay down in a hammock on the shores of a beautiful Fiji beach and read a book. When I got tired, I slept, when I awoke, I returned to reading in the most beautiful of settings (the photo above is NOT of my vacation, it's just a random photo I found online, but it reminds me of that wonderful day). Many of my best vacation memories include reading.