I’ve Got the Need-To *and* the Want-To

Isn’t it interesting how a “task” or a “goal” can morph into a desire and a pleasure?

Get your mind out of the gutter! I’m talking about my 101 List reading goal.

I love to read. I just don’t have a lot of time free to read – so I gave myself a goal to read for pleasure, to work through biographies and autobiographies that have been languishing on our bookshelves and to patronize my local library.

When I was a kid, I suspect my parents were hard-pressed to get my nose out of a book and my tush in the backyard. If I had free time, I could be found curled up on the couch with a favorite book. I’d sneak in a few chapters after bedtime, thanks to a helpful mini-flashlight.

That book-reading passion followed me overseas. No television in my flat and freedom from the journal article-intensive reading of graduate school led to voracious reading. A chapter or two in the morning, a chapter or two over my lunch hour and late-night reading marathons. A book stuck in my purse to read while waiting in yet another unexpected queue. I’m sure I read at least two books a week.

There’s nothing like a good book!

Even so, who could have expected that a small goal to read more – with actual “READ BY THIS DATE” deadlines could rekindle that passion?

Yet here I find myself deep in book-love. A chapter before heading out the door in the morning, a chapter before collapsing for the night.

Have you ever had a need-to turn into a want-to?

And what are you reading these days? I’m reading Water for Elephants this month, based in large part on an enthusiastic recommendation of a good friend.