Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Old Addiction and New

Today as I was pulling off the stickers on the back of my Shakespeare book I realized that I haven’t read an actually book in a long time and it made me sad. For as long as I can remember I’ve always had a book that I carried everywhere. I was the girl who when she didn’t have a book heard “Jackie doesn’t’ have a book. No way.” You know the book nerd. And I never cared because I loved having my book and opened it whenever I could. Even if that meant sneaking it out when the teacher wasn’t watching and reading instead of taking notes.

Upon graduating college I received a lap-top computer. It’s what the children in my house get for graduating. I was super excited. I’m also a bit of a technology fan. I’d been using the family PC for games, websites, and reading. I’d been a fan of websites such as fanfiction.com, Quizilla, and Fictionpress.com. All of which I posted some sort of original work and followed wonderful authors. Although I read online I never spent too much time because I preferred my books. Getting the lap-top changed everything. I’ve since become a bit of a computer addict. I’m on it pretty much all day. NO matter what I have to be on it.

In about August of 2006, a few months after graduating, I found this show called Queer As Folk (or QAF) which had just ended the year before. After I watched all of the show clips and look up pictures I began reading fanfiction something I swore I would never do. And I became addicted. There are some amazing writers who not only write fanfiction but also write original work as well. Since then I read all day.

I love the fact that I’m still reading. And just because the characters in the stories are from a tv show doesn’t mean that the writing can’t imagine some of the most amazing settings and story lines that I have ever read. But I’m still sad that I don’t carry around a book. That I don’t read the same stories that I once did. I read romance stories now instead of science fiction novels. While I was at a bookstore I picked up one the new novels in a series I used to love and read the back. I really need to try to get into it again. I was so interested in what I read but all I could think about was the multi-series story that I was in the middle of reading. I really have to get over this computer addiction and get back in book addiction. A tiny part so I can hear my mom stop saying “I haven’t seen you with a book in forever.” But mostly for me.

Not leaving the house and staring a computer screen, even if I’m reading, is bad for me. It’s bad for my health and it’s bad for my dreams and my goals. I just wish it wasn’t so difficult and that I could actually stick to getting of the computer. Not just saying I will.

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