My Heaven

I was thinking about independent bookstores after writing that last post and thought it was funny that normally I'm like, "Mom and pop shops? Whatever." I usually really don't care much. (Call me Satan, but I do love Wal-Mart.)

But independent booksellers -- now that's what I love. I can remember spending hours in "A Likely Story" in C-town. I wanted to work there when I got older, but it closed soon after I started college. Before that, it was "Caravan's" in Oklahoma. My mom would buy Lexi and me a turkey bagel with cream cheese and a book.

I'll never forget the huge amount of time I spent reading when I was younger. I don't read much now, though. I'm so busy with work and church activities and well, watching movies, actually. I don't know why, but it's been more difficult to get started on books now. Maybe college took the pleasure out of reading them? No. No, it's more that once I got to the point where I was really studying the literature I was reading (in 12th grade), I think I became overwhelmed. It's difficult for me to "just read" a book now. I have a compulsion to look up every single word I don't understand, research the history behind each novel, google the author, and analyze the text. That's good, but it's also a bit exhausting. If I only had time . . .

Which is why I'd like a heaven to be an eternity of reading and studying whatever I want. And I expect there'll be a lot of that. And it's fine by me. As long as my family is around. Just books and family -- that's what I want my heaven to be. (And food, too.)

What would make up your heaven?

Thing I'm thankful for: soap.