thpring blothoms!

(that's "spring blossoms" with a lisp)

This past month I've read five books geared at expanding my knowledge on various subjects of interest, from colonial American history to postmillennialism. As much as I love reading about subjects that interest me, the reading can be wearying, since I'm always trying to retain information, carrying that information in my head throughout the day, and generally being exhausted by having my mental faculties always working on overdrive. I have a laundry list of books in my queue, but they're all geared at expanding knowledge. And to be honest, I just don't feel like I can handle it anymore. So I'm taking a bit of a sabbatical and plunging into "entertainment reading," novels and stories that have NOTHING to do with colonial American history or theology. I just want a break. 

Last night around 9 PM I picked up a novel.

Airframe by Michael Crichton (one of my favorite authors).

I'm more than halfway through it.

Next up: Stephen King's The Stand.

I've always wanted to read it, but I've never had the time.

Or, rather, I've never had the nerve.

Because when I read fiction, when I read for entertainment rather than the acquisition of knowledge, I start feeling guilty. I start feeling like I'm wasting my time, that I'm not being a good steward or something along those lines. We all have our issues. I'm forcing myself to not read anything of "intellectual value" for the month of May. Nothing but stories, novels, fiction. And already I've felt a little bit better. Sitting on my sofa last night with the lamp glowing and reading a story, tearing through the pages, I was taken back to my high school days when I would read up to ten different books a month. I'm feeling pretty excited and trying to decide what books I'm going to read after The Stand. I may revisit Harry Potter, or take up Game of Thrones, or even hit up the Divergent series everyone is talking about. 

Spring really is a good time for reading.

Ben and I sat out on the back porch yesterday reading.

I was reading about the Stamp Act Crisis.

He was flipping through The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

"Are you still reading war books?" he asked.

I told him I was.

"I read war books. They're really sad. Lots of killing, horses, and orcs."

This evening after spending some time with Ams, I'll be going to bed early at my parents' house in Dayton before waking up in the dead of night to drive up to Wisconsin to make it to Ripon by the morning. Words will not suffice to express my excitement, the longing burning inside me to see Mandy face-to-face, to take her hand in mine, to pull her close and just hold her for a good long while. It's been over a month since we've seen in each other in "Real Life," and a month, I've decided, is far too long. I'm vowing to not let another month pass without seeing each other, and she'll just have to deal with that.