"So, any big plans for the summer?"

At school we ask and get asked this question a million times--by parents, colleagues, the kids, the street sweeper (okay, probably not the street sweeper but it sure seems like it). When I have something fun planned for the summer (a trip to St. Maarten, for example!) I love the question because I love saying the answer. When I have no plans, I get tired of the question. My answers so far have been, "Lots of reading", "Go out to lunch", "Clean out my car", "Take an online class".

Zzzzzzz..... is that snoring you hear?

"Just plan something" is what I usually hear. 1) The few people I would want to travel with are working and can't/won't take time off, or don't have any money. 2) I'm kind of choosy who I'd like to make those memories with.

In reality, I AM looking forward to reading a lot this summer. If you've read my blog for awhile you might remember that over the last four years or so my love and desire for reading has diminished to almost nil. I attribute this to the required reading I feel I need to do to keep up on new books we get in the library. I have become a really, really good faker when talking to kids about books. Do you know I've only read ONE of the Harry Potter books, yet the kids think I've read them all? Here's how it usually goes:

them: Have you read -----?

me: Oooh---- did you love that book? What was your favorite part?

them: When the whatever did the whatever.....

me: I KNOW! Can you believe that? Did this book remind you of anything else you read?

them: blah blah blah....

me: Me too! So much alike!

One thing I am really good at is recommending read-alouds for teachers. And I've read all of those!

Over the last six months or so I've been picking up more and more books, and really loving reading again. I think the biggest factor is B--he reads a LOT. He mostly reads non-fiction, but has given me a few of his other books to read and I feel like I need to read them, since he recommended them. Many times on the weekends we will be either his place or mine and we'll just sit and read for awhile. I love that. He almost always has a book in his car, for those times he's early someplace and has time to kill. I've started doing the same thing. Now I can hardly go a day or two without a new book when I finish one. I'm also re-reading things I read eons ago--things I've had on a bookshelf here at home just taking up space. Right now I'm reading Rapture of Canaan which is not a book I would ever pick up on my own. I have no idea where I got it from--but it was on my nightstand last night so I started it. So far I'm really liking it.

Time to go read.