i like fiction

So we spent the first 7 years of marriage reading at night mostly by the light of table lamps, and then headlamps if one of us was sleeping.  Awesome, right?  Try it, it works.  But my parents, my wonderful parents who know me so well, got us reading lamps from Ikea last Christmas.  While I was preoccupied delivering that sweet Baby A in March, my dad spent an afternoon getting them all set up.  And they. are. fabulous!

That was so not the point.  But I do love those bed lamps from Ikea.  Get some!  The point is...I really don't like to read nonfiction.  I don't, in fact, often read anything other than stories.  And those I read in abundance - quickly and often.  But I keep feeling like I should be reading other stuff.  If I can read thousands of pages a month, it just seems like a portion of that should be spent on something...productive.  And I don't mean cookbooks.  They're like an instruction manual for domestic bliss, and therefore always necessary.

I also have this strict thing about only reading one book at a time.  And a thing about finishing a book unless it is so super bad that I just can't bear it (usually I can suffer through).  One of my greatest dilemmas with nonfiction is that it's always a lot to take in at once.  I just want to be entertained.  I might really want to know that a thirsty camel can drink 30 gallons of water in less than 15min*, but I don't want to know everything about camels in one night.  I don't think I ever want to know everything about camels.

But this strange thing is happening.  I have been reading 4 very interesting non novels.  And stranger still, I'm just interspersing them with my regular fiction.  What is happening?!  There is usually a 'to read' stack and a 'to return' pile, but right now my nightstand is all confused.

And on a fun literary note, this was one of my favorite books as a youngster.  We just got it from the library last week.  So great.  Though now I wonder if it somehow fostered my deep and abiding affection for ketchup.

* That was merely the first random fact that popped into my head.  I haven't actually read a book about camels.  Though maybe I should...