For the love of all that's holy!
[title bears no relation whatsoever to the content within, I just felt like a dramatic title was in order]
1. HAPPY SIMON PEGG'S BIRTHDAY!!!!! I know for some of you, this day has some other significance, possibly influenced by the marketing schemes of jewelers, but I see differently! And not just because I hate Valentine's Day! Really! I hated VD even when I was in a relationship! I hated it even when said relationship was good! But I LOVE February 14th, for Lo! that is the day The One Who Will Save Me was born.
2. Just finished Among Others, by Jo Walton and I cannot recommend it enough. My last post asked if others considered themselves Readers or among Those Who Love to Read, because I feel there is a distinct difference between the two. Someone Who Loves to Read, reads, and is awesome, and we need them. Reading is entertainment for them, on par with watching TV or sewing or taking photographs. It is a noble hobby and I got tons of love for Those Who Love to Read.
Readers, on the other hand, depend upon reading (the act, the physical act, not simply the outcome of ingesting a story) for survival. Reading keeps us sane during the hardest times of our lives. It is escape, succor, a gateway to flights of fancy or calm. Anything is fodder for reading to a Reader: books, the Internet, backs of cereal boxes. Our eyes cannot help but pass over words as long as they are in front of us. To a Reader, anything can be withstood as long as there are books (or their equivalent)*.
While Among Others is a fine book for Those Who Love to Read, especially if They love to read SF/F (Those Who Love with a penchant for modern literary fiction or The Wall Street Journal may feel a bit lost, though Vonnegut fans will feel right at home), this is a novel written as a love letter to Readers everywhere. Any bona fide Reader will see bits of him or herself in Mor. Don't worry that it's set at a boarding school; ignore the references to magic and fairies. I enjoyed these elements, but they're outside the point, which is simple and easily understood by any Reader anywhere:
Reading? Saves lives.
3. There is no 3. I just like trinities. Have a good day.
[I realize now the title bears EVERY relationship to the post within - huh.]
*I feel the need to point out after rereading an email form lynnez59 that I don't believe being a reader has anything to do with the amount of time spent reading as much as the emotional and mental dependency upon reading that creates the distinction between the two. In my head, anyway.