Books, Beautiful Books

I must make a confession. I have an obsessive love of books. I always have and , though others have made fun of me over the years for my bookishness, the shine has not dimmed on my love of good books. When I was a little girl I would not stop reading even to walk to the car so my mom could drive me to wherever her errands were taking her. Granted, I ran into a few walls and fell down a few steps, but I was happy. And, while my siblings sat bored in the car or waiting room while my mom did what she needed to do, I was lost in a far away place and I never noticed that a moment had passed.
Someone once said that reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are. This was certainly true of me when I was growing up. So what about now? Escaping to another time or place is still a pleasure for me, but books began serving a much greater purpose when I reached adolescence. They began taking me to a better me. I love books on leadership, servanthood, business, life, classice literature, and self-improvement. I am continually amazed at the number of rational, thinking adults who make no effort at growing as a person. There is just no reason to remain the same way day in and day out, year after monotonous year when, instead, we can embark on the miraculous and exciting journey to the self we can become. The self that God desires for us to become. Certainly good books are not the only road to "becoming", but when you don't know how to get that stubborn baby to sleep through the night, or that stubborn teenager to get up in the morning, why not dive headfirst into the wealth of wisdom and experience out there? If you aren't sure how you will survive financially when your working days are over, or how to communicate with your spouse right now, then, for goodness sakes, get some help!! Grow! Change! Become! Mark Twain once said that "The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them." We are without excuse in this land of education and prosperity in which we live. Let's grow up. Let's open a book and open up a whole new world of possibilities!