Revisiting a Past Joy

I love to read. For as long as I can remember, reading has been my favorite pastime. I can read just about anywhere and in spite of just about anything. I love libraries and bookstores. In fact, I can just go and sit in them and enjoy myself, soaking up all the knowledge floating around me.

When I was a kid, I would reread the same books over and over. I don't know if I couldn't find new books to read or if I just enjoyed the familiar. But I read some books 7 or 10 or more times over the course of my childhood.

Now, it seems, I'm in some sort of undeclared race to read as many different books as I can. I just finished my second book of the year (and I'm mired in a third one that is a good history of Panama Canal but just not very quick to read). In the spirit of exploring joy and including my favorite hobby in that, I decided to reread something. Not just a book that I've read before but a book that I enjoyed reading when I was a kid.

I know the danger of destroying the memory by reading it again. But nothing could take away the joy that I had then and I will discover something new now when I read it, even if I don't enjoy it as much.

So I'm spending my reading time today (and tomorrow if needed) to read The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary. I'm sure that this past joy will deliver again, even if just for nostalgia.

Today's Joy: Exploring a book I enjoyed as a kid